< 


This  book  must  not 
be  taken  from  the 
Library  building. 


FRANCES  BRIDGES  ATKINSON 


A.  ^^Z^, 


FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 


A  RECORD    OF   HER    LIFE 
PREPARED  BY  HER  FRIENDS 


FOREWORD   BY 

MARGARET   E.    SANGSTER 


NEW  YORK 

NATIONAL  BOARD  OF  THE  YOUNG  WOMEN'S  CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATIONS    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA 

1908 


Copyright,  1908,  by 
GEORGE  H.  ATKINSON 


THE    PREMIER   PRESS 
NEW    YORK 


To 

The  Young  Women  of  America 

Whom  Frances  Bridges  loved  and  for  whom  she  toiled 

This  book  is  dedicated 

In  His  Name. 


5 


V 

4 


FOREWORD 

THE  friend  about  whom  the  following  pages 
have  been  written  was  a  very  incarnation  of 
life  and  joy.  The  sunshine  of  her  spirit 
made  a  brightness  wherever  she  went.  She  was,  in 
her  own  person,  the  realization  of  an  ideal  Christian 
woman  who  from  childhood  had  belonged  to  the 
Master  and  who,  day  by  day,  poured  out  the  rich 
fragrance  of  devoted  service  at  His  feet.  Frances 
Bridges  touched  many  lives  throughout  the  short 
progress  of  her  own.  As  a  little  daughter  of  the 
manse,  she  early  won  the  hearts  of  her  father's  con- 
gregation, and  there  are  those  in  Brooklyn  who  like 
to  remember  the  dainty  little  figure  and  the  sweet 
enthusiasm  of  the  child  who  walked  in  the  annual 
Sunday-school  procession  in  which  Brooklyn  takes 
so  much  pride. 

As  a  student  at  Smith  College  the  charm  of  her 
winsome  personality  and  the  unobtrusiveness  of  her 
character  individualized  her  in  a  large  class  where 
she  was,  without  effort,  a  leader  in  everything  that 
had  to  do  with  distinct  and  definite  Christian  work. 
There  was  never  anything  vague  in  her  conduct, 
yet  she  made  on  no  one  an  impression  of  anything 

7 


8  FOREWORD 

forced,  rigid  or  austere.  Her  religious  life  was  not 
divorced  from  her  daily  life;  it  belonged  to  her  as 
the  perfume  to  a  flower.  The  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world  was  that  this  girl,  wonderfully  equipped 
by  nature  and  grace  to  go  forth  as  a  young  woman 
called  to  a  ministry  of  love  among  other  young 
women,  should  find  her  niche  as  a  secretary  of  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association.  Peculiarly 
endowed  with  charm  and  repose,  entirely  free  from 
self-consciousness,  reaching  easily  the  hearts  of 
young  and  old,  and  splendidly  magnetic,  her  work 
as  secretary  was  everywhere  followed  by  the  divine 
blessing.  Students  and  faculty  alike  welcomed  her 
when,  in  the  course  of  her  work,  she  visited  a  col- 
lege ;  managing  boards  in  city  Associations  and  girls 
in  business  life  equally  felt  the  magic  of  her  pres- 
ence, and  at  summer  conferences  she  was  always  a 
radiant  centre  of  warmth  and  light. 

At  the  time  of  her  happy  marriage  to  the  Rev. 
George  H.  Atkinson  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
congratulations  came  to  her  and  to  him  from  every 
part  of  this  great  land,  while  thousands  of  hearts 
sent  their  good  wishes  and  breathed  their  prayers 
for  the  bride  as  she  entered  on  another  phase  of  her 
womanly  career.  The  word  career  is  often  criti- 
cised, and  with  most  of  us  there  is  an  unspoken  feel- 
ing that  somehow  a  career  is  incompatible  with  the 
sweetness  and  gentleness  of  household  life,  yet  who- 
ever may  read  this  record  must  agree  with  me  that  in 


FOREWORD  9 

the  truest  sense  of  the  word  Mrs.  Atkinson's  useful 
life,  ending  before  she  was  thirty,  deserved  the  name. 
She  never  thought  of  her  life  as  anything  beyond 
a  daily  and  quiet  performance  of  duty.  She  thought 
little  of  herself,  a  great  deal  of  her  work,  much  of 
her  Master.  No  day  of  hers  began  without  the 
morning  watch.  She  rose  early,  that  she  might  have 
her  hour  with  Jesus;  after  that,  every  day  and  all 
day  she  gave  herself,  without  stint,  to  the  work  she 
had  in  hand.  She  slurred  nothing.  Children  loved 
her,  old  people  found  her  adorable.  Girls  of  all  sorts 
and  conditions  were  moved  not  only  by  her  appeals, 
but  by  her  presence,  and  made  her  their  pattern.  To 
live  a  life  of  sincerity  and  nobility  out  in  the  open, 
with  Christ  as  the  motive  and  meaning  of  it  all,  is 
to  have  the  best  career  in  these  days  of  opportunity 
that  is  ever  the  province  of  woman. 

In  the  short  space  of  her  married  life,  Mrs.  At- 
kinson took  up  the  multiform  obligations  that  rest 
on  the  wife  of  a  minister,  and  at  once  became  the 
object  of  love  and  admiration  that  the  mistress  of 
the  manse  should  be  in  her  husband's  parish.  She 
stood  at  his  side,  helping  him  in  every  department. 
She  had  been  too  busy  in  other  ways  to  learn  much 
about  housekeeping  beyond  its  theory,  but  from  the 
moment  the  bride  entered  the  home  she  became  a 
home-maker  and  nothing  that  she  needed  to  know 
escaped  her  notice  or  study.  Only  five  months  and 
thirteen  days  were  hers  in  this  beautiful  portion  of 


io  FOREWORD 

life.  Swiftly,  suddenly,  unerringly,  that  Angel  of 
the  Shadow  who  opens  the  door  for  us  into  everlast- 
ing sunlight  called  her  hence.  One  moment  she  was 
speaking  to  an  audience  of  girls  about  choosing  the 
better  part.  The  arrow  sharpened  with  love  had 
pierced  her,  and  before  many  hours  she  was  at  home 
with  God. 

It  seems  strange  to  us  in  these  summer  days  to 
think  that  she  is  nowhere  within  our  reach,  that  no 
letter  of  ours  can  bring  to  us  one  of  her  dear  re- 
plies, that  we  cannot  sit  at  her  table,  nor  hear  her 
speech,  nor  see  the  flashing  of  her  smile.  She  is 
gone,  and  our  human  hearts  yearn  for  the  touch  of 
the  vanished  hand  and  the  sound  of  the  voice  that  is 
still.  Yet  she  has  not  gone  very  far  away :  her  feet 
have  trodden  the  starry  path  between  the  worlds : 
she  is  with  her  Lord,  and,  being  with  Him,  she  is 
not  distant  from  us.  It  is  not  apart  from  what  we 
have  a  right  to  hope  to  think  that  she  may  often 
be  with  us  in  our  little  meetings,  in  our  larger  audi- 
ences, as  we  go  about  our  work;  that  she  may  be 
permitted  some  ministry  of  love  to  us  whose  eyes 
are  too  dim  to  see  the  forms  of  messengers  from 
heaven.  Wherever  she  is  to-day,  she  is  loving  and 
serving  still,  she  is  not  alone;  she  is  one  of  a  great 
company  of  friends.  She  has  not  forgotten  any  one 
for  whom  she  cared  here,  or  any  work  that  ever  en- 
listed her  toil.  She  is  herself  in  the  other  land,  only 
a  thousand  times  more  herself,  more  alive,  wiser, 


FOREWORD  ii 

blither,  freed  from  the  bondage  of  the  flesh,  able  to 
serve  with  the  swiftness  of  the  spirit. 

Many  young  women  should  own  the  simple  story 
of  this  earnest  life.  The  little  book  should  go  forth 
on  a  mission  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  There  is  not 
a  daughter  in  any  home,  a  student  in  any  college,  a 
young  Christian  worker  in  any  Association,  who 
would  not  be  stronger  and  better  for  the  inspiration 
and  stimulus  that  the  reading  of  these  pages  will 
give. 

Not  to  praise  our  dear  one,  but  to  praise  God  for 
her  and  to  continue  the  work  she  began,  this  little 
record  has  been  lovingly  prepared.  It  is  lovingly 
commended  to  all  young  women  in  this  and  other 
lands. 

Margaret  E.  Sangster. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I. — The  First  Years,  1876- 1894 1- .  *7 

II.— In  Smith  College,  1894-1898. 24 

HI —Early  Work,  1898-1903 42 

IV. — The  National  Secretary,  1903-1905.  66 

V.— The  Pastor's  Wife,  1905-1906 101 

VI. — Long  Good-byes  Are  Hard,  1906 116 

VII. — The  Secret  of  Her  Influence 129 


13 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Autograph  Portrait Frontispiece. 

PAGE 

Portrait,  1882 x5 

Portrait,  1894 2^ 

Hatfield  House,  Smith  College 31 

Portrait,  1898 4I 

Portrait,  1905 g9 

Presbyterian  Church,  Monroe,  N.  C 100 

Kenilworth  Inn ne 

West  Presbyterian  Manse,  Bridgeton,  N.  J.. .   129 


*5 


*i* 

# 

^^^IP 

Frances  Bridges,  1882 


THE  FIRST   YEARS 

THERE  is  necessary  to  the  understanding  of 
many  a  life  an  exposition  of  the  times  of 
which  that  life  was  a  part.  A  past  genera- 
tion must  be  vitalized,  its  political,  religious  or  do- 
mestic conditions  must  be  reproduced  to  the  imagi- 
nation, if  the  reader  catch  ever  so  faint  a  vision  of 
the  life  that  moved  amid  these  conditions.  Every 
course  of  action,  every  revealed  purpose,  gains  its 
true  value  only  when  interpreted  by  such  exposition 
of  a  by-gone  day.  To  a  certain  extent,  everyone  is 
a  product  of  his  age ;  all  that  he  has  met  has  entered 
into  his  character.  This  is  true,  even  though  in  a 
larger  sense  individual  character  only  records  the 
differences  between  the  varying  impressions  a  gen- 
eration makes  upon  separate  men,  each  a  different 
plastic  medium. 

The  life  of  Frances  Bridges  Atkinson  does  not  re- 
quire for  its  illumination  that  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  a  long  past  generation  should  be  revived. 
She  was — she  is — a  part  of  the  present,  of  her  own 
generation,  a  generation  full  of  significance  for  such 

17 


18      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

as  she,  for  it  offers  a  wide  place  to  woman,  it  offers 
a  high  place  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  and  Savior 
of  women  in  all  lands,  and  it  insistently  calls  for 
women  to  take  up  a  service  for  Christ  which  shall 
transform  Christian  believers  into  Christlike  mem- 
bers of  society. 

But  the  generation  alone  was  not  an  adequate 
cause  for  her  life.  Unselfishness,  her  most  strongly 
marked  trait,  is  hardly  characteristic  of  the  present 
day.  The  two  constantly  quoted  sources  of  charac- 
ter, heredity  and  environment,  have  their  place.  Still, 
though  her  parentage  and  ancestry  were  of  the  best 
and  the  surroundings  of  her  childhood  and  of  her 
school  and  college  days  all  that  could  be  desired,  oth- 
er girls  have  had  equal  endowments  of  nature,  equal 
advantages  of  moral  and  intellectual  training,  but 
equal  results  have  not  followed.  The  secret  of  her  life 
— one  may  not  say  of  her  success  in  life,  for  what 
she  did  was,  to  her,  merely  the  inevitable  expression 
of  what  she  was — the  secret  of  her  life,  perhaps,  is 
this :  Simply  and  naturally  when  a  child,  and  with 
enlarging  intention  and  grasp  as  she  grew  older, 
Frances  Bridges  "chose  the  better  part."  Deliber- 
ately, quietly,  as  she  did  everything,  she  studied  into 
God's  law  of  obedience.  She  understood  that  when 
the  word  of  Jehovah  came  "to  keep  all  his  statutes 
and  his  commandments  that  it  might  be  well  with 
thee,"  this  welfaring  was  not  an  extraneous  reward, 
but  an  inherent  part  of  obedience.    Following  God's 


THE    FIRST    YEARS  19 

course  brought  one  out  at  God's  intended  goal,  a 
better  goal  than  man  could  devise.  Walking  in  God's 
way  meant  a  straight  path,  which  led  through  duties 
and  responsibilities  and  among  people  with  claims 
upon  sympathy  and  help,  but  it  was  a  path  of  divine 
companionship  and,  therefore,  better  than  any  soli- 
tary self-selected  road. 

It  was  God's  plan,  one  believes,  that  in  her  char- 
acter obedience  should  result  in  the  beauty  of  holi- 
ness, that  shining  purity,  that  absorption  in  spiritual 
things,  "holiness  unto  the  Lord  in  letters  of  light  on 
her  forehead."  In  another  character,  God  has 
worked  out  as  the  inevitable  result  of  that  soul's  obe- 
dience, courage,  or  power  of  leadership,  or  patience 
under  suffering;  for  her,  God  made  possible  the 
beauty  of  holiness. 

Frances  Antoinette  Bridges  was  born  at  number 
eighteen  Woodbine  Street,  Brooklyn,  New  York, 
November  eleventh,  1876.  She  was  the  oldest  child 
born  to  her  parents,  Rev.  William  J.  and  Susan  Gist 
Bridges.  A  son  and  a  second  daughter  died  in  in- 
fancy. A  third  daughter,  Margaret  Dickson,  was 
also  born  in  Brooklyn. 

At  the  time  of  her  birth  Mr.  Bridges  was  pastor 
of  the  Greene  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  near 
Reid  Avenue.  This  society  had  been  organized  two 
years  before,  and  it  called  him  as  its  first  regular 
pastor  in  the  spring  of  1875.  Mr.  Bridges  had  only 
recently  turned  to  the  ministry  from  a  business  ca- 


20      FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

reer  in  his  native  city  of  Baltimore.  Here  he  had 
been  associated  with  his  father,  formerly  of  George- 
town, D.  C.  In  this  newly  erected  church  the  child 
was  baptized,  receiving  the  name  Fannie,  from  Mrs. 
Fannie  Haddon  Earle,  the  wife  of  the  superintend- 
ent of  the  Sunday-school  in  Greene  Avenue  Church, 
and  the  name  Antoinette,  from  her  mother's  niece, 
Mrs.  Antoinette  Carter  Hughes,  wife  of  Governor 
Charles  E.  Hughes  of  New  York,  who  had  made 
her  home  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bridges  for  some  time 
before  this. 

As  she  grew  up,  the  Sunday-school  took  a  large 
place  in  her  horizon.  There  were  the  old-fashioned 
Sunday-school  Christmas  celebration,  and  the  Easter 
and  Children's  Day  exercises.  There  was  the  an- 
nual Sunday-school  parade,  when  children  from  all 
the  Protestant  schools  in  Brooklyn  met  at  their  own 
churches  and  filed  out  to  form  divisions  and  fall  into 
line  in  the  great  procession,  marching  and  counter- 
marching before  the  reviewing  stand,  where  stood 
the  Mayor  of  Brooklyn  and  otfier  guests  of  honor. 
The  sight  of  thirty  thousand  children  on  a  bright 
day  in  May,  their  white  dresses,  their  fluttering  flags 
and  banners,  their  animated  faces,  the  sound  of  the 
bands  of  music  accompanying  different  sections  of 
each  division,  and  the  treat  of  ice  cream  and  cake 
awaiting  the  return  of  the  procession,  is  never  for- 
gotten by  anyone  who  has  seen  it.  When  the  time 
had  come  for  promotion  from  the  Infant  Depart- 


THE    FIRST    YEARS  21 

ment,  a  class  of  five  little  girls,  who  came  out  to- 
gether, was  given  to  Mrs.  Mary  Wetzel,  whose  un- 
derstanding of  child  nature  and  affection  for  the 
members  of  her  class  made  her  forever  beloved  by 
her  pupils.  Their  offering  was  largest  for  Easter, 
they  helped  to  collect  aid  for  the  Johnstown  flood 
sufferers,  they  had  summer  outings  together  at  Pros- 
pect Park  and  Manhattan  Beach.  It  was  Mrs.  Wet- 
zel's custom  to  ask  for  written  comments  on  the  les- 
sons of  the  quarter  before  review  Sunday,  and  Fan- 
nie Bridges,  in  her  even,  schoolgirl  hand,  wrote  out 
her  reasons  for  remembering  the  lessons  on  "Blind 
Bartimseus"  or  "The  Timid  Woman's  Touchy  Her 
loving  little  heart  was  delighted  by  the  present  of  a 
chair  sent  to  their  Quincy  Street  home  by  this  class 
as  a  surprise  for  her.  Her  account  is  graphic:  "I 
called  papa  and  he  went  to  the  door  and  brought  it 
in.  He  was  told  the  card  inside  would  explain  all, 
and  after  taking  off  I  don't  know  how  many  papers 
and  strings  we  came  to  the  card  which  told  that  it 
was  a  present  from  you  to  me.  Maggie  had  to  sit 
down  in  it  right  away  and  say  how  'comforbul'  it 
was,  and  I  have  had  to  repeat  what  she  said  every 
time  I  sit  in  it." 

All  this  time  her  soul  was  growing  like  a  flower 
in  the  spring  sunshine.  People  who  knew  her  said 
that  when  she  joined  the  church  at  the  age  of  twelve 
she  understood  the  meaning  of  the  step  and  was  try- 
ing to  glorify  her  Savior  in  her  daily  living  more 


22      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

than  many  adults  appear  to  do.  The  little  girl  had 
many  a  struggle — living  up  to  high  convictions  is 
always  hard ;  but  she  recalled  to  a  friend  later  in  life, 
when  working  together  with  Sunday-school  chil- 
dren, one  of  her  own  experiences : 

"I  made  my  first  decision  when  I  was  about  twelve 
years  old.  I  found  it  very  hard  then  to  tell  my  difficulties 
to  anyone,  even  my  father,  and  so  for  several  weeks  I 
struggled  by  myself.  I  felt  that  I  ought  to  try  to  sell  among 
the  people  some  religious  books  which  had  been  spoken  of 
at  church.  I  had  always  been  timid  and  held  back  many 
times  from  what  I  knew  to  be  right  because  of  what  peo- 
ple would  say.  I  do  not  think  now  that  God  particularly 
wanted  me  to  sell  those  books,  but  He  did  want  me  to 
overcome  that  fear  of  other  people's  opinions.  Finally  I 
went  to  my  father  and  told  him  that  I  had  made  up  my 
mind  to  do  it.  The  doing  of  this  thing  was  the  first  step 
toward  conquering  this  fear,  although  I  have  to  fight  it 
in  all  my  public  work." 

She  began  making  friends  in  the  kindergarten 
and  continued  it  in  the  public  school  she  attended, 
Number  26,  on  Gates  Avenue. 

Shortly  before  Frances  was  fourteen,  Mr.  Bridges 
was  called  as  pastor  of  the  West  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Bridgeton,  New  Jersey,  where  the  family 
resided  for  the  next  thirteen  years.  From  1890  to 
1894  Frances  was  a  student  in  Seven  Gables,  a 
boarding  and  day  school  in  Bridgeton,  of  which 
Mrs.  F.  F.  Westcott  was  the  principal.  Even  in  this 
preparatory   school  her  personality,   her  conscien- 


Frances  Bridges,  1894 


THE    FIRST    YEARS  23 

tiousness  and  her  love  for  Christian  things  were 
manifest.  From  this  school  she  graduated  as 
valedictorian  of  her  class,  obtaining  the  same  honor 
she  had  won  in  her  earlier  school  in  Brooklyn.  One 
of  her  most  beloved  teachers  was  an  alumna  of 
Smith  College,  the  daughters  of  various  family 
friends  had  been  or  were  being  educated  there,  and 
so  it  naturally  came  about  that,  in  the  spring  of 
1894,  Frances  went  up  to  Northampton  to  take  her 
entrance  examinations  for  Smith  College. 


II 


IN  SMITH  COLLEGE 


FRANCES  was  just  a  sweet,  natural  little  girl 
when,  in  the  fall  of  1894,  she  went  up  to 
Smith  College  to  cast  in  her  lot  with  six 
hundred  girls  from  all  parts  of  the  world  and  from 
/ill  sorts  of  homes. 

There  were  those  from  the  great  cities  who  could 
boast  already  of  wide  social  experience,  and  those 
whose  sixteen  or  eighteen  years  had  contained  won- 
derful periods  of  foreign  travel,  or  study  in  historic 
surroundings.  There  were  many  from  the  famous 
girls'  schools,  already  familiar  with  some  aspects  of 
college  life,  and  some  of  illustrious  birth,  with  con- 
fident bearing,  and  with  the  pride  of  intellectual  con- 
quest already  visible  on  their  interesting  faces,  girls 
who  promptly  took  front  seats  in  classes  and  volun- 
teered knowledge  at  the  first  opportunity. 

Frances  belonged  rather  to  a  possibly  more  envia- 
ble class,  of  whom  also  Smith  possessed  a  goodly 
number,  whose  previous  life  had  been  passed  within 
the  shelter  of  a  simple  home  in  a  town  not  so  large 
as    Northampton,  a  home  where  love  and  high- 

24 


IN   SMITH*  COLLEGE  25 

minded  devotion  to  spiritual  interests  were  the  pre- 
vailing influences.  She  entered  this  somewhat  be- 
wildering new  world  a  little  shyly,  it  may  be,  but 
with  the  unconscious  simplicity  that  was  all  her  own, 
prepared  to  do  in  college  just  what  she  had  always 
been  doing,  to  work  honestly  and  live  to  glorify  the 
Lord  Christ  in  every  way.  As  at  home  so  at  col- 
lege her  Christian  faith  was  the  controlling  force  in 
her  thought  and  attitude,  and  determined  the  man- 
ner and  direction  of  her  entire  development. 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  been  given  a  few  first 
impressions.  During  freshman  and  sophomore  years 
Frances  lived  in  a  private  house  on  West  Street,  and 
this  glimpse  of  her  is  given  by  another  girl  who  lived 
there:  "We  certainly  did  have  a  jolly  crowd,  and 
Frances  was  a  jolly  girl.  We  certainly  did  not  ex- 
perience any  loneliness  or  isolation  from  being  off 
the  campus — in  fact,  were  not  far  enough  from  the 
campus  to  realize  that  we  were  not  part  of  it.  Fran- 
ces was  one  of  the  first  girls  I  knew  at  college,  and 
I  shall  never  forget  how  pretty  she  was  the  first 
time  I  saw  her.  She  wore  her  beautiful  brown  hair 
in  a  long  braid  down  her  back,  and  her  red  cheeks 
were  redder  than  the  lining  of  the  golf  cape  she 
wore.  She  was  just  entering  the  door  at  fifty-eight 
West  when  my  mother  and  I  saw  and  spoke  to  her, 
and  from  that  day  we  were  great  friends.  She  had 
a  good  deal  of  fun  in  her,  and  while  somewhat  more 
serious  at  heart  than  some  of  the  rest  of  us  she  knew 


26      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

how  to  enter  into  any  lark  with  zest.  I  well  remem- 
ber how  we  girls  used  to  tease  her.  Frances  did  not 
believe  in  Sunday  visits,  so  regularly  every  Sunday 
night  we  used  to  file  up  the  two  flights  of  stairs  to 
her  room,  and  the  poor  girl,  being  too  friendly  to 
tell  us  to  go,  was  torn  between  her  scruples  and  her 
cordiality,  and  it  always  ended  in  a  general  jollifica- 
tion. 

"She  was  the  best  friend  I  ever  had  in  college, 
the  most  steady  and  dependable.  She  was  equally 
able  to  enjoy  the  stylishness  of  her  huge  balloon 
sleeves  and  to  lead  a  college  prayer-meeting.  In 
those  days  she  was  not  at  all  certain  as  to  how  long 
she  could  remain  in  college,  and  confessed  to  me 
she  was  going  through  'on  faith/  " 

An  incident  mentioned  by  the  mother  of  one  of 
the  girls  is  significant.  While  visiting  her  daugh- 
ter, this  lady  met  the  sweet-faced  freshman  and 
tells  how  one  morning  Frances  entered  the  dining- 
room  after  breakfast  was  begun  and,  upon  taking 
her  seat,  bowed  her  head  for  a  silent  grace.  "It 
seemed  a  good  deal  for  so  young  a  person  to  do, 
where  there  were  several  others  and  older  ones  at 
the  table,  but  it  was  a  testimony  for  the  Master.' ' 

A  classmate  who  became  one  of  her  most  intimate 
friends  was  first  attracted  strongly  by  a  remark 
made  regarding  Frances  by  another  ninety-eight  girl 
who  had  come  from  the  same  home  town :  ' Trances 
Bridges  is  one  of  the  most  unselfish  girls  I  have  ever 


IN   SMITH   COLLEGE  27 

known."     "It  was  that  remark,"  said  her  friend, 
"that  made  me  long  to  know  her." 

"Her  face  was  enough,"  adds  another,  "to  cause 
the  committee  on  freshman  class  prayer-meetings  to 
choose  her  for  one  of  the  first  leaders,  and  from  that 
time  on  almost  every  topic-card  bore  her  name."  Re- 
ferring to  those  early  days,  one  of  her  teachers  calls 
her  "a  reserved,  beautifully-poised  girl." 

In  scholarship  Frances  started  in  at  an  advantage, 
for  she  brought  with  her  the  evidence  of  a  studious 
and  industrious  past.  Her  entrance  examinations 
were  creditable,  and  one,  that  in  German,  was  so 
excellent  as  to  win  for  her  preparatory  school  the 
coveted  privilege  of  entering  its  pupils  in  future 
upon  certificate  alone.  She  had  no  "conditions"  and 
was  handicapped  by  no  shaky  foundations. 

Concerning  the  various  studies  that  claimed  her 
attention,  it  is  noticeable  that  throughout  the  four 
years  she  studied  rhetoric,  literature  and  elocution, 
and  also  gave  a  good  part  o»f  her  time  to  German. 
The  affectionate  relation  with  the  womanly  head  of 
the  German  department  was  one  of  the  sweet  and 
helpful  influences  which  she  afterwards  recognized 
as  important.  The  official  records  testify  that  all  of 
her  work  was  good,  and  some  of  it  excellent.  Her 
entire  course  was  characterized  by  great  thorough- 
ness and  conscientious  devotion,  and  by  the  special 
depth  that  a  thoughtful  nature  brings  to  all  mental 
labors.     Shortly  after  her  entrance  the  college  made 


28      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

it  possible  for  those  who  were  candidates  for  the  de- 
gree of  Bachelor  of  Literature,  by  making  up  cer- 
tain courses,  to  qualify  as  candidates  for  the  classi- 
cal degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  There  were  many 
who  talked  of  making  the  change;  Frances  was  one 
of  the  few  who  carefully  and  persistently  worked  at 
the  difficult  requirements  until  they  were  fulfilled. 

As  evidence  of  her  reputation  for  good  scholar- 
ship, coupled  with  warm  personal  regard,  we  may 
mention  her  election  to  the  Phi  Kappa  Psi  literary 
society.  The  Voice  Club  also  claimed  her,  and  came 
to  count  her  possibly  its  most  gifted  member.  She 
had  a  fine  instinct  for  interpretation,  as  was  natural 
to  one  so  sympathetic  in  nature,  and  her  soft-toned, 
musical  voice  supplied  the  appropriate  medium  of 
expression.  For  her  last  two  years  she  held  the  of- 
fices of  secretary  and  vice-president,  respectively,  in 
the  Voice  Club,  of  which  the  head  of  the  elocution 
department  was  always  president. 

While  Frances  participated  in  a  goodly  share  of 
the  usual  college  activities,  that  for  which  she  was 
best  known,  and  by  which  her  later  career  was  most 
influenced,  was  her  religious  work.  From  the  first 
she  was  a  Christian  worker.  For  at  least  one  year 
she  attended  the  Sunday-school  connected  with  the 
Edwards  Church,  where  she  usually  had  a  sitting 
and  which  she  joined  as  the  students  do  for  the  years 
of  their  college  course,  under  Mr.  Paul  Van  Dyke 
as  pastor.     She  gave  herself  heartily  to  every  op- 


IN   SMITH   COLLEGE  29 

portunity  offered  by  the  organized  Christian  work 
among  the  students.  Beginning  in  a  quiet  way  by 
regular  participation  in  her  own  class  prayer-meet- 
ings, she  rapidly  became  known  until  she  was  ac- 
knowledged to  be  one  of  the  spiritual  leaders  of  her 
class. 

In  the  fall  of  1896,  the  desire  that  had  been  grow- 
ing for  more  than  a  year  among  the  leaders  of  the 
Association  for  Christian  Work,  to  bring  about 
through  prayer  and  endeavor  a  more  broadly  spir- 
itual work,  came  to  outward  expression  in  several 
new  lines,  viz. :  voluntary  Bible  classes  led  by  stu- 
dents, a  handbook  for  the  aid  of  the  entering  class, 
and  a  weekly  meeting  of  the  cabinet  for  prayer  and 
conference.  In  all  of  these  enterprises  Frances  was 
given  a  prominent  part. 

She  led  one  of  those  first  Bible  classes  with  great 
helpfulness  to  the  members.  She  was  on  the  com- 
mittee which  published  the  first  handbook,  and  dur- 
ing both  junior  and  senior  years  she  served  on  the 
cabinet  with  distinct  influence  upon  the  spiritual  tone 
of  the  meetings.  In  her  senior  year  she  helped  to 
initiate  another  undertaking  under  the  Association, 
the  Students'  Exchange,  which  peculiarly  appealed 
to  her  wide  sympathies  by  its  offer  of  help  to  needy 
students.  During  the  senior  year  she  was  also  vice- 
president  of  the  Association,  and  by  virtue  of  that 
office  was  chairman  of  the  religious  work  commit- 
tee, the  department  that  was  ultimately  responsible 


30      FRANCES   BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

for  every  religious  meeting  held  by  the  students,  ex- 
clusive of  those  under  the  Missionary  Society,  and 
probably  that  exerting  the  widest  influence  of  any. 
The  formation  of  the  Christian  Union  that  same 
year  further  illustrates  how  bound  up  she  was  with 
several  of  the  most  notably  spiritual  advance  steps 
taken  in  the  history  of  the  Association.  This  organi- 
zation marked  the  culmination  of  a  feeling  that  had 
emerged  from  the  increasing  spirit  of  loyalty  to 
Jesus  Christ,  and  provided  an  opportunity  for  those 
who  wished  definitely  to  profess  their  belief  in  Him 
and  desire  for  His  service  to  enroll  themselves.  The 
definite  organization  was  preceded  in  the  previous 
year  by  a  tentative  expression  of  sympathy  with 
such  a  sentiment  to  which  many  girls  subscribed 
their  names. 

By  virtue  of  her  position  on  the  cabinet,  Frances 
had  a  leading  part  in  the  forming  of  the  phrase 
adopted  in  1897  and  ratified  by  the  organization  the 
following  year.  The  object,  as  expressed,  was  "the 
deepening  of  the  Christ-life  in  ourselves  and  in  the 
college." 

Nowhere  was  her  presence  felt  more  profoundly 
than  in  the  various  prayer-meetings.  In  letter  after 
letter  we  see  how  vividly  her  memory  is  associated 
with  the  upper  room  where,  in  those  days,  we  used 
to  meet,  all  the  classes  together,  to  pray  and  sing: 
"We  may  not  climb  the  heavenly  steeps  to  bring  the 
Lord  Christ  down,"  and  to  testify  to  the  Love  that 


IN   SMITH   COLLEGE  31 

we  knew  was  holding  us  in  the  midst  of  all  the  new 
ideas  that  were  forcing  their  way  to  controlling  po- 
sitions in  our  minds.  One  who  was  below  Frances 
in  college  speaks  of  her  in  these  prayer-meetings, 
"where  she  would  speak  so  simply  and  earnestly  of 
the  Christ-life,  and  what  fellowship  with  the  Mas- 
ter meant  to  her.  One  could  see  it  all  in  her  beau- 
tifully sensitive,  expressive  face,  and  what  she  said 
always  counted  with  us,  because  we  knew  she  lived 
it."  Another  recalls  lovingly  "her  sweet,  earnest, 
prayerful  face,  and  sweet  pleading  voice  in  prayer." 
Still  another  reverently  says  she  felt  that  when  Fran- 
ces spoke  in  those  meetings  she  seemed  to  see  God's 
spirit  in  a  human  face. 

The  permanent  and  far-reaching  influence  upon 
her  fellow  students  of  these  impressions  is  simply  in- 
calculable, and  especially  must  their  power  have  been 
great  among  the  under-class  girls  whom  Frances 
was  always  so  eager  to  help,  and  "many  of  whom 
used  to  look  up  to  her  with  an  affection  which  had 
a  touch  of  reverence  in  it." 

But  to  stop  with  this  description  of  her  public 
activities  would  be  to  misrepresent  her  whose  life 
consisted  not  so  much  in  things  that  she  did  as  in 
what  she  was.  She  impressed  herself  not  more  by 
definite  work  than  by  the  things  she  loved  and  by 
the  way  in  which  she  went  about  her  daily  tasks  and 
entered  into  the  passing  moments  of  college  life  and 
fun. 


32      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

What,  then,  were  some  of  the  other  things  that 
filled  her  life  and  made  the  world  in  which  she  grew 
into  womanhood? 

Prominent  among  inspiring  influences,  every  stu- 
dent of  Smith  recognizes  that  distinguished  man 
who  has  been  its  only  president,  and  points  to  him 
as  the  prime  cause  of  its  great  strength.  Not  only 
do  the  girls  recognize  the  enormous  debt  of  the  col- 
lege to  his  character  and  ability,  but  they  universally 
acknowledge  gratefully  the  power  in  their  own  lives 
exerted  by  his  lofty  ideals  and  rugged  spiritual 
strength.  In  his  fatherly  spirit  of  gentle  authority 
they  find  that  which  makes  the  college  atmosphere  a 
normal  one  for  a  girl's  development. 

Another  question  which  every  college  student  rec- 
ognizes as  of  prime  importance  in  determining  the 
character  of  her  college  life  is  that  of  the  particular 
campus  house  in  which  she  will  make  her  home. 
Each  house  has  its  individuality,  and  each  its  advo- 
cates who  regard  it  as  pre-eminently  desirable.  Fran- 
ces was  fortunate  in  being  able  to  enter  a  house 
whose  reputation  was  unexcelled  in  her  day.  The 
Hatfield  was  universally  respected  for  its  share  of 
brains  and  true  aristocracy,  and  counted  among  its 
girls  a  large  number  of  the  most  attractive  and 
gifted  in  college.  Thus,  junior  and  senior  years 
gave  Frances  rare  opportunities  for  forming  friend- 
ships of  a  valuable  character,  and  for  gaining  that 
rich  culture  that  one  obtains  only  through  close  con- 


IN   SMITH   COLLEGE  33 

tact  with  many  kinds  of  girls,  whose  varied  tastes 
and  greatly  differing  ideas  are  influenced  by  high 
breeding  and  earnest  purposes.  The  college  which 
claimed  Frances  possesses  in  its  student  body  the 
advantages  that  flow  from  wealth  wisely  used,  and 
from  a  nobly  educated  ancestry;  and  it  would  be 
hard  to  find  a  better  environment  in  which  to  place 
a  girl  already  suited  to  it  by  a  beautiful  home  ex- 
perience. 

It  is  undeniable  that  Frances  had  a  genius  for 
friendship.  She  loved  many  and  she  loved  them 
deeply,  because  she  looked  for  no  flaws  and  with  her 
sweet  sympathy  penetrated  to  the  lovable  element  in 
every  one  she  touched.  The  girls  from  Bridgeton  es- 
pecially was  she  ever  eager  to  help,  and  she  felt  a 
personal  responsibility  for  their  college  careers. 

There  was  one  who  lived  in  a  house  at  some  dis- 
tance from  her  own  with  whom  Frances  had  come 
into  contact  early  in  her  course.  This  girl  was  ex- 
tremely diffident  and  found  it  impossible  to  overcome 
her  reserve  and  make  one  of  the  jolly  group  about 
her.  Soon,  as  was  natural,  the  girls  grew  weary 
of  trying  to  draw  her  out,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  left 
her  pretty  much  to  herself,  losing,  by  this  thought- 
less neglect,  acquaintance  with  a  character  of  depth 
and  refinement.  But,  obeying  her  instinct  to  pene- 
trate beneath  the  surface,  Frances  followed  up  her 
freshman  acquaintance,  and  pursued  a  friendship 
that  lasted  until  the  other  was  removed  by  death 


34      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

early  in  her  sophomore  year.  The  significance  of  this 
incident  became  apparent  to  a  few  when  it  was 
learned  that  the  shy  girl's  letters  to  her  mother  had 
disclosed  terrible  loneliness  throughout  her  college 
life.  Among  her  friends  Frances  always  counted 
that  mother  who  appreciated  deeply  the  sweet  in- 
sight into  her  daughter's  real  character. 

Her  friends  were  not  confined  to  those  of  her  own 
age,  and  probably  her  training  as  a  minister's  daugh- 
ter supplemented  her  natural  tendency  to  affiliate 
with  older  women.  Her  teacher  in  Sunday-school, 
an  elderly  lady  of  rarely  sweet  character,  became  one 
of  her  valued  friends.  The  residents  of  the  Old  La- 
dies' Home  knew  her  as  a  frequent  visitor.  And 
many  others,  of  various  ages  and  conditions  of  life, 
all  sorts  of  people,  among  whom  were  many  of  the 
afflicted,  recognized  in  her  one  who  entered  into 
their  lives  with  love  that  knew  no  barrier  nor  false 
distinction,  love  that  was  but  the  irresistible  outflow 
from  the  Christ-life  within. 

It  would  have  been  impossible  for  her  to  confine 
her  love  to  those  who,  through  congenial  tempera- 
ment alone,  might  be  supposed  to  be  fitted  for  per- 
sonal friendship.  While  entirely  loyal  and  devoted 
to  these,  she  gave  herself  with  whole-hearted  fidelity 
to  all  who  needed  her.  She  was  incapable  of  shal- 
low, indiscriminating  friendship,  and  equally  inca- 
pable of  a  formal  philanthropy  arising  from  mere 
pity.     Hers  was  charity  in  all  the  fulness  of  the 


IN   SMITH   COLLEGE  35 

original  sense  of  love.  She  loved  because  love  was 
the  spontaneous  expression  of  her  consecrated  na- 
ture, and  because  she  was  actually  able  to  see  in  ev- 
ery one  who  touched  her  life  the  real  and  beautiful 
element  which  made  that  one  attractive  to  her. 

Although  naturally  reticent,  she  talked  freely  to 
those  nearest  to  her  of  the  things  that  deeply  inter- 
ested her.  To  some  she  was  in  the  habit  of  reading 
aloud  from  the  great  masters  of  literature,  especially 
from  Browning.  One  friend  says:  "Her  natural 
transparency  of  character  was  all  the  more  clearly 
impressed  in  her  reading."  . 

Her  enjoyment  of  poetry  and  of  music  was  in- 
tense, and  she  appreciated  the  rich  opportunities  af- 
forded by  the  college  with  all  the  warmth  of  her 
strongly  artistic  nature.  Wholly  unspoiled,  she  took 
a  fresh  interest  in  everything.  A  visit  to  Boston 
with  a  classmate  during  a  vacation  was  enjoyed 
keenly,  and  the  musical  treat  included  gave  her  the 
greatest  joy  for  a  long  time  afterward.  She  loved 
the  jolly  parties  and  all  the  good  times  with  the  zest 
of  a  wholesome  girl  whose  tastes  are  in  process  of 
healthy  growth.  Her  spirit  was  unusually  open  to 
the  joy  and  sparkle  and  gayety  pervading  college 
life.  In  later  years  she  used  laughingly  to  say  that 
she  "never  could  see  a  joke,"  and  it  was  true  that  it 
was  very  easy  to  tease  her,  because  she  was  too  in- 
nocent to  suspect  any  one;  but  every  one  loved  her 
too  much  to  take  unkind  advantage  of  that,  and  she 


36      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

certainly  had  a  great  amount  of  fun  in  her  sunny 
nature. 

Frances  developed  very  greatly  during  her  college 
life  in  her  appreciation  of  the  beautiful — of  music, 
pictures  and  nature.  This  growth  was  apparent  in 
her  different  college  rooms,  as  the  later  ones  bore 
marks  of  more  discriminating  taste  and  stronger 
feeling.  "I  remember,"  writes  one,  "when  she  got 
the  idea  that  one  might  imitate  nature's  coloring  at 
the  various  seasons  in  one's  clothes,  and  got  a  brown 
and  red  dress  for  autumn,  and  a  light  brown  dress 
trimmed  with  pale  green  the  following  spring." 

The  beauty  of  her  surroundings  entered  largely 
into  her  life.  The  glorious  mountains,  those  "hills 
with  purple  shadows,"  the  winding  river  and  the 
broad  meadows  of  the  Connecticut  Valley — she  felt 
them  with  all  her  deep  capacity  for  the  beautiful,  and 
realized  their  power  to  enlarge  one's  sense  of  sacred 
things,  and  to  ennoble  and  crowd  the  heart  with 
mysterious  joy.  One  tells  how  she  used  to  go  with 
her  to  a  certain  spot  "where  one  looks  off  to  Mount 
Tom,  over  the  broad  sweep  of  the  meadows,  called 
by  Frances  'the  looking-off  place.' ' 

When  a  very  innocent  girl  whose  life  has  been 
singularly  protected  enters  a  large  cosmopolitan  col- 
lege it  is  natural  that  there  should  be  some  painful 
experiences  of  revelation,  and  Frances  met  the  inevi- 
table. There  were  some  shocks,  too,  when  she  found 
herself  in  close  contact  with  some  whose  standards 


IN   SMITH   COLLEGE  37 

and  principles  differed  widely  from  her  own.  But 
her  childlike  faith  carried  her  through  all  of  these 
surprises  without  any  personal  loss,  either  of  gentle- 
ness or  of  conviction.  The  study  of  Biblical  Criti- 
cism, while  it  provoked  much  earnest,  possibly  anx- 
ious, questioning,  left  no  troublesome  doubt  nor  un- 
certainty regarding  the  rest  for  her  own  soul.  Be- 
lief in  God  was  in  her  a  personal  relation,  a  devo- 
tion of  her  entire  self  to  a  Heavenly  Father  whose 
voice  she  knew,  and  whose  touch  upon  her  spirit 
was  too  constant  to  be  lessened  or  appreciably  in- 
creased by  intellectual  modifications. 

It  is  probable  that  the  largest  result  of  all  these 
revelations  concerning  varying  standards,  either 
practical  or  theoretical,  was  an  intensified  sympathy 
with  all  whom  she  met,  for  it  is  certain  that  in  talk- 
ing with  her  in  after-years  those  who  did  not  share 
her  own  convictions  felt  no  shadow  of  intolerance. 

Her  uncommon  personality,  its  other-worldliness, 
made  her  universally  loved  and  honored,  although, 
it  is  true,  some  thought  her  dreamy.  But  one  class- 
mate denies  that  she  was  really  visionary,  and  sev- 
eral call  attention  to  the  forceful,  practical  manner  in 
which  she  filled  her  various  offices.  She  was  simply 
not  "troubled  about  many  things."  "Her  mind  was 
fixed  on  the  one  thing  she  wanted  to  do,  and  she 
could  not  be  diverted  from  it,  nor  distracted  by  lesser 
things." 

The  quiet,  even  movement  of  her  life,  its  perfectly 


38      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

simple,  steady  unfolding,  constituted  possibly  its 
most  unique  beauty.  It  will  be  best  to  leave  fur- 
ther remarks  about  this  and  other  facts  of  her  char- 
acter to  certain  of  her  friends  who  knew  her  well 
and  have  written  as  follows : 

"The  most  striking  thing  about  her  college  life,  as  I 
look  back  at  it,  was  the  beautiful  way  she  developed  from 
a  child  to  a  woman  during  those  four  years.  Of  course 
we  were  all  growing  up  together,  and  yet  in  Frances  the 
process  was  so  clearly  defined  and  so  beautiful  that  some 
of  the  rest  of  us  seemed  to  be  standing  aside  and  watch- 
ing it.  In  her  freshman  year  she  was  a  dear,  shy  little 
country  girl ;  in  her  senior  year  she  was  a  lovely,  -well- 
poised  woman,  conscious  of  her  powers,  without  having 
lost  a  bit  of  that  wonderful  childlikeness  of  spirit  which 
I  think  she  would  have  kept  unspoiled  if  she  had  lived  to 
be  an  old  woman.  Surely  it  was  that  which  Jesus  meant 
in  Luke  18:17.  (Verily  I  say  unto  you,  whosoever  shall 
not  receive  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall 
in  no  wise  enter  therein.)  .  .  .  Her  spiritual  life  was 
just  a  gradual  unfolding  and  deepening  without  any  up- 
heaval, such  as  many  pass  through.  ...  In  her  fresh- 
man year  her  faith  was  just  the  simple  unreasoning  one 
of  a  little  girl.  She  left  college  with  a  woman's  grasp  of 
things  unseen.  It  just  came  quietly  through  a  natural 
growth." 

"As  I  think  of  it,  it  seems  as  if  it  (her  life)  was  a 
wonderful  example  of  what  might  come  to  a  child  whose 
whole  life  had  been  surrounded  and  filled  with  the  ideals 
and  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ,  an  assurance  that  struggles 
and  trouble  of  mind  are  not  necessary  for  growth,  that 
the  ideal  life  is  not  confined  to  those  who  have  great  ex- 


IN   SMITH   COLLEGE  39 

perience,  that  joy  and  love  and  careful  shielding  in  the 
home  do  not  necessitate  a  selfish  character.  Her  own  sun- 
shine seemed  merely  to  throw  light  on  others,  not  to 
make  them  seem  more  in  the  shadow.  .  .  .  It  is  very 
easy  to  think  of  her  in  the  Father's  house — she  would  be 
at  home  there." 

"I  knew  her  very  little  in  college,  but  I  was  impressed 
with  her  sweet  spirit  and  the  sincerity  of  her  religion.  I 
knew  her  only  in  the  class  room,  and  there  I  remember 
her  sweet  Christian  spirit  was  shown  often  in  her  inter- 
pretation of  passages  of  poetry." 

"After  we  graduated  we  went  to  Northfield  to- 
gether. It  was  the  first  experience  for  us  both,  and  to 
Frances  it  was  one  of  the  sweetest  and  most  wonderful 
of  experiences.  It  was  more  inspiring  and  helpful  than 
anything  that  she  had  ever  imagined.  But  she  took  it  all 
in  the  same  quiet,  calm  way  that  she  always  took  every- 
thing. .  .  .  She  did  not  go  to  all  the  meetings;  she 
planned  to  be  alone  to  pray.  I  remember  one  night  while 
we  were  there  she  and  I  were  suddenly  told  of  a  great 
sorrow  that  had  come  to  one  of  our  dearest  friends.  I 
remember  how  impossible  it  was  for  me  to  sleep,  and  how 
it  seemed  to  me  that  my  heart  would  break  as  I  thought 
of  the  anguish  that  had  come  to  one  whom  we  loved, 
while  Frances  slept  as  quietly  and  as  peacefully  as  a  little 
child,  knowing  that  the  comfort  that  we  could  not  give, 
God  would  give,  and  believing  that  He  was  giving  it.  Just 
before  we  graduated  we  were  both  asked  if  we  would 
go  to  Turkey,  and  after  the  conference  we  both  considered 
the  question  of  volunteering.  We  were  both  very  anxious 
to  volunteer,  but  so  many  questions  came  in,  chiefly  of  our 
duties  toward  our  homes.  .  .  .  Frances  was  never  able 
to  volunteer,  but  facing  the  question  and  having  to  decide 


4o      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

it  brought  her  face  to  face  with  God  in  a  way  that  she 
had  never  come  before,  and  did  very  much  to  prepare  her 
for  the  great  work  before  her.  She  learned  how  to  pray 
in  a  deeper  way  than  before  and  how  to  let  God  decide 
all  for  her." 

"Her  chief  characteristic  seemed  to  me  a  wonderful 
childlike  trust.  I  remember  one  hot  day  at  Northfield, 
when  others  of  us  who  had  responsibilities  were  nervous- 
ly anxious  over  things  going  wrong,  as  we  thought,  com- 
ing in  on  Frances  who  had  prayed  with  us,  and  who  had 
then  left  it  all  and  gone  peacefully  to  sleep  like  a  baby. 
We  stood  and  looked  at  her,  and  it  was  a  lesson  to  us." 

"She  had  learned  the  quiet  restfulness  of  prayer — noth- 
ing was  too  great  to  attempt  and  nothing  too  small  to  do 
— because  all  was  guided  and  done  by  God  in  her." 

"She  had  a  most  precious  way,  both  at  Northfield  and 
in  college,  of  sharing  with  me  some  new  truth,  .  .  . 
and  in  those  moments  her  beautiful  face  seemed  to  have 
the  very  light  of  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  on  it. 
.  .  .  Three  such  occasions  stand  out  in  my  memory. 
One  was  when  Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  was  at  college 
and,  in  a  private  conversation  about  our  witnessing  for 
Christ  in  college,  he  called  our  attention  in  his  own  in- 
imitable way  to  Jeremiah  20:9.  (And  if  I  say  I  will  not 
make  mention  of  him,  nor  speak  any  more  in  his  name, 
then  there  is  in  my  heart  as  it  were  a  burning  fire  shut 
up  in  my  bones,  and  I  am  weary  with  forbearing,  and  I 
cannot  contain.)  I  remember  well  the  expression  on  her 
face  at  that  moment  as  well  as  the  way  in  which  she  spoke 
of  the  verse  for  weeks  afterward.  Another  time  was  at 
Northfield  when  she  had  been  having  a  talk  with  Dr.  (now 


Frances  Bridges,  1898 


IN   SMITH    COLLEGE  41 

Bishop)  McDowell,  in  which  he  had  spoken  to  her  of 
Revelation  2:17.  She  came  back  to  me  with  her  face  all 
aglow,  her  eyes  full  of  tears,  and  a  sort  of  awe  in  her 
face  and  in  her  voice  as  she  said:  Think  of  it! — a  name 
that  no  one  knows  but  He  and  I.'  Again  at  Northfield, 
as  we  were  walking  together,  she  told  me  how,  that  morn- 
ing, she  had  been  reading  Matthew  12:50  and  said:  'Isn't 
it  wonderful  that  He  should  have  said  "Sister" !  I  am  so 
glad  He  did,  for  I  know  what  that  means.'  And  all  the 
tenderness  that  characterized  her  home-life  seemed 
crowded  into  her  tone  as  she  said  it." 

"She  was  so  modest  and  so  truly  humble  that  I  know 
she  would  have  shrunk  from  the  idea  of  having  a  book 
written  about  her,  but  she  would  have  put  aside  that  per- 
sonal feeling  if  she  had  felt  sure  that  such  a  book  would 
be  the  means  of  leading  other  girls  to  give  themselves 
more  completely  to  the  Master  whom  she  so  devotedly 
loved.  .  .  .  One  cannot  speak  of  one's  relations  with 
her  in  the  past  tense,  somehow,  as  if  her  life  were  ended. 

'And  doubtless  unto  her  (thee)  is  given 

A  life  that  bears  immortal  fruit 

In  those  great  offices  that  suit 
The  full-grown  energies  of  Heaven.' " 


Ill 


EARLY  WORK 


FIRST  the  student,  then  the  teacher.  Many  and 
many  a  young  girl,  closing  the  four  years' 
routine  of  college,  longs  to  return  for  gradu- 
ate study.  This  is  partly  because  in  her  last  under- 
graduate months  the  array  of  subjects  not  included 
in  her  own  course  seems  so  inviting  and  so  indis- 
pensable that  she  is  reluctant  to  leave  without  ac- 
quaintance with  them,  and  partly  because  she  fears 
the  plunge  into  the  outside  world.  But  there  is  a 
graduate  school  richer  in  opportunities  than  any  be- 
loved alma  mater  or  the  most  generously  endowed 
university.  It  is  the  school  of  actual  responsibility 
in  which  one  becomes  "master"  of  herself,  of  her 
surroundings,  and  of  the  approaches  to  the  hearts 
of  those  dependent  upon  her.  This  is  unusually  true 
when  the  first  work  is  that  of  teaching,  for  if  the 
primary  object  of  study  is  to  acquire  information, 
the  exhaustive  research  necessary  to  present  a  sub- 
ject to  a  class  informs  the  teacher  far  better  than 
did  her  first  encounter  with  the  subject  as  a  stu- 
dent, and  if  a  second  object  of  study  is  discipline  to 

42 


EARLY   WORK  43 

the  mind  of  the  one  who  undertakes  it,  directing 
the  study,  or  inducing  study  of  pupils,  secures  a  far 
greater  discipline  to  both  mind  and  spirit. 

This  was  Frances  Bridges'  experience  also.  In 
the  autumn  of  1898  she  entered  the  Pennsylvania 
School  of  West  Philadelphia  as  teacher  of  Latin  and 
elocution.  Her  courses  in  college,  as  well  as  mem- 
bership in  the  Voice  Club,  had  served  as  preparation 
for  part  of  this  work,  as  also  had  the  reading  aloud, 
of  which  she  and  the  friends  who  listened  to  her 
were  always  extremely  fond.  She  did  not  reside 
wholly  at  the  school,  for  Bridgeton  was  so  near  that 
she  ran  home  for  the  week-ends,  yet  she  gained  a 
strong  hold  on  her  young  pupils  who  clearly  dis- 
cerned her  gentleness,  her  characteristic  kindness 
and  the  fineness  of  her  nature.  Not  only  the  stu- 
dents but  her  colleagues  in  the  teaching  staff  recog- 
nized her  as  one  of  the  most  sincere,  yet  unobtrusive, 
of  Christians,  because  she  did  not  criticise  or  ex- 
hort, but  lived  simply  and  sincerely  in  her  relations 
to  all  about  her. 

The  spring  term  closed  early  enough  to  allow  at- 
tendance at  the  Northfield  Summer  Conference, 
again  a  time  of  receiving  personal  spiritual  help 
and  of  ministering  to  others.  During  this  confer- 
ence one  of  the  leaders  organized  a  prayer  group  of 
some  of  the  more  earnest  Christians,  to  pray  for 
generous  giving  to  the  Association  movement.  They 
met  every  evening,  and  Miss  Bridges'  confidence  in 


44      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

God  and  His  readiness  to  answer  prayer  was 
strengthened  by  the  unprecedented  results  of  the 
public  finance  meeting.  For  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, one  gift  provided  for  the  support  of  one  travel- 
ing secretary,  and  other  large  subscriptions  were 
made.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  regular  prayer 
circle  on  behalf  of  financial  needs.  Miss  Bridges 
suggested  the  names  of  various  friends  who  might 
like  to  receive  letters  stating  the  calls  as  they  arose, 
and  who  would  join  in  the  united  intercession.  There 
are  many  who  believe  that  some  of  these  early  finan- 
cial successes  were  due,  in  part,  to  Frances  Bridges' 
prayers. 

She  wrote  to  a  friend  after  leaving  the  conference 
of  how  it  had  blessed  her  and  what  things  helped 
her  most,  and  that  this  thought  had  come  to  her  as 
she  had  meditated : 

"Your  life  from  now  on  will  show  if  the  blessing  has 
been  great  and  you  have  received  it  with  humility.  Then 
the  coming  days  will  find  you  strong  and  unflinching  in 
your  belief  and  work,  because  of  your  utter  and  honest 
dependence  upon  God.  But  if  instead,  in  these  summer 
and  fall  and  winter  days,  Christ  does  not  find  you  so  con- 
scious of  your  own  sin  and  weakness  that  you  are  con- 
stantly crying  to  Him  for  help,  then  the  good  that  you 
took  from  Northfield  was  a  mere  sham  and  hypocrisy.  So 
the  year  is  going  to  show — is  it  not? — just  how  close  and 
intimate  was  our  friendship  with  Christ  at  Northfield.  It 
would  be  a  terribly  solemn  thought — it  is  solemn,  but  it 


EARLY  WORK  45 

would  make  me  desperate  or  indifferent — were  it  not  that 
God  is  able  to  keep  us  from  stumbling  and  to  present  us 
faultless  before  His  presence  with  exceeding  joy." 

The  year  1899- 1900  was  spent  with  her  parents 
and  sister  in  Bridgeton,  where  she  was  a  telling  ex- 
ample of  what  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  manse 
might  be.  The  "art  of  being  lovely  at  home,"  in 
which  art  she  was  most  highly  accomplished,  is  no- 
where so  beautiful  as  in  a  clergyman's  family.  Hos- 
pitality, sympathy,  patience,  inspiration  for  personal 
and  organized  efforts,  are  all  naturally  sought  here, 
and  can  be  found  only  when  all  the  members  of  the 
family  are  united  in  making  their  home  a  place  in 
which  Christ  is  honored  by  the  spirit  of  the  daily 
routine. 

This  was  before  the  days  of  universal  mission 
study  in  the  women's  and  young  people's  societies; 
in  fact,  it  was  only  a  few  years  after  the  Student 
Volunteer  Movement  for  Foreign  Missions  had 
planted  the  idea  of  mission  study  classes  firmly  in  the 
colleges,  through  the  instrumentality  of  Professor 
Harlan  P.  Beach,  the  editorial  secretary,  and  Horace 
Tracy  Pitkin  and  other  traveling  secretaries,  of  the 
Movement.  But  Frances  recognized,  even  then,  how 
the  "belief  in  missions"  that  every  normal  Christian 
will  admit,  might  be  converted  into  interest  by  prop- 
er cultivation.  So  she  gathered  the  young  ladies  of 
the  church  every  Saturday  evening,  and  read  for  a 
couple  of  hours  from  missionary  books,  while  the 


46      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

hearers  were  free  to  do  needle-work,  or  simply  to 
listen,  as  they  preferred.  This  scheme  met  with 
great  success  at  the  time  and  bore  fruit  in  later 
years. 

She  entered  willingly  the  various  avenues  of 
church  work  and  found  time  for  individuals,  par- 
ticularly for  old  ladies  kept  at  home,  who  never 
could  cease  talking  of  Miss  Fannie  and  how  she  used 
to  come  to  see  them.  There  was  a  poor  boy  whom 
she  taught  alone  in  Sunday-school  and  started  in 
the  right  paths  of  life.  The  teacher  into  whose  class 
he  went  after  Frances'  departure  said  that  his  fam- 
ily kept  the  photograph  of  this  first  beloved  teacher 
on  the  parlor  table  as  the  most  precious  ornament  in 
the  room,  and  that  she  was  always  given  an  oppor- 
tunity to  admire  it  when  calling  at  the  home.  The 
boy  one  day  asked  the  second  teacher  for  her  pic- 
ture to  put  in  the  same  room,  but  added,  with  the 
candor  born  of  loyal  devotion  and  reverence:  "But 
it  won't  be  nowise  so  pretty  as  Miss  Bridget's." 

One  writer  of  biography  asserts  that  the  account 
of  a  human  life  is  the  record  and  analysis  of  its 
crises.  These  understood,  everything  is  understood. 
But  that  theory  is  hardly  ample  enough  for  general 
application,  since  some  of  the  fullest  lives  do  not 
contain  great  crises.  The  solution  of  the  most  im- 
portant problems  is  simple  for  them,  a  general  trend 
of  thought  and  action,  different  courses  possible, 
and  all  in  harmony  with  this  general  trend.     One 


EARLY   WORK  47 

course,  impracticable  "for  the  present,"  as  we  say, 
another  course  immediately  possible.    Thus  the  way 
is  plain.     That  Frances  Bridges  should  be  identified 
with  some  form  of  distinctly  Christian  service  was 
so  natural  that  her  friends  expressed  no  surprise, 
simply  commented  on  her  choice  of  fields,  when  she 
decided  to  enter  the  secretaryship   in   the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association.    As  is  known,  she 
had  been  intimately  connected  with  the  Smith  Col- 
lege Association  for  Christian  Work  and  had  come 
into  touch  with  the  broader  movement  through  the 
Northfield  Conference  and  in  other  ways,  and  she 
had  discussed  most  seriously  the  question  of  offering 
for  foreign  mission  service;  but  as  this  step  did  not 
seem  wise  to  her  parents  at  the  time,  she  believed  it 
was  not  God's  will  for  her  then,  and  so  was  free  to 
choose  a  field  at  home.     Another  Smith  alumna, 
Miss  Bertha  Conde,  of  the  Class  of  1895,  who  was 
at  the  time,  1900,  one  of  the  traveling  student  secre- 
taries for  the  American  Committee  of  Young  Wom- 
en's Christian  Associations,  was  so  certain  that  Miss 
Bridges  had  in  her  character  and  spirit  great  possi- 
bilities as   a   student   secretary   that   she   went   to 
Bridgeton  to  persuade  her  to  enter  this  movement. 
The  field  of  the  Southern  colleges  was  definitely  laid 
before  her,  and  in  the  spring  of  1900  she  was  intro- 
duced to  the  Asheville  Conference  as  the  traveling 
secretary  for  the  Carolinas,  for  the  Gulf  States,  in- 
cluding then  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi 


48      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

and  Louisiana,  and  for  Tennessee  and  Kentucky. 
Early  in  October  of  that  year  she  went  to  Chicago, 
the  headquarters  of  the  American  Committee,  where 
a  conference  of  several  days  was  held  for  a  number 
of  secretaries  going  for  the  first  time  into  Associa- 
tion positions.  And  with  that  brief  insight  into  the 
technical  part  of  her  duties  she  started  out  upon  her 
long  journeys  among  the  educational  institutions  for 
women  of  the  Southland.  As  she  was  leaving  home, 
her  mother  said  with  solicitude :  "Frances,  what  will 
you  do,  traveling  alone?"  "God  will  take  care  of 
me,"  was  her  answer. 

The  possibilities  of  such  a  work  as  she  thus  en- 
tered upon  are  past  computation.  The  conditions 
in  no  two  schools  are  identical,  but  in  each  the  stu- 
dent Young  Women's  Christian  Association  must  be 
unique  in  its  survey  of  its  own  field  and  its  efforts 
to  supplement  the  Christian  work  already  done  by 
the  faculty  or  other  organizations.  This  Associa- 
tion, composed  of  volunteer  workers,  students  and 
faculty,  and  officered  by  the  undergraduates,  has, 
because  of  its  intercollegiate  relations,  two  strong 
allies.  One  is  the  traveling  secretary  in  her  visits 
to  the  colleges;  the  other  is  the  summer  conference 
which  the  members  attend.  In  the  conferences  the 
score  of  leaders,  speakers,  Bible  teachers  and  secre- 
taries share  for  ten  days  the  burden  of  advising  in 
the  many  matters  referred  to  them.  But  the  travel- 
ing secretary  stands  almost  alone  during  her  visit 


EARLY   WORK  49 

of  brief  duration,  when  her  counsel  is  sought  by  the 
faculty,  by  members  of  the  cabinet,  as  the  commit- 
tee chairmen  and  officers  are  called,  and  by  individ- 
ual girls.  In  nearly  every  instance  the  point  of  view 
of  the  outsider,  as  well  as  of  the  mature  Christian, 
is  sought,  and  for  this  reason  she  is  unable  to  ask 
counsel  even  upon  the  subject  matter  thus  confided 
to  her,  lest  the  identity  of  the  person  involved  might 
be  revealed  to  teacher  or  felloiw-student.  These  per- 
sonal interviews  grew,  year  by  year,  to  claim  a  very 
considerable  share  of  Miss  Bridges'  time,  although 
it  is  frequently  supposed  that  conferring  with  com- 
mittees and  holding  public  meetings  are  the  primary 
features  of  such  a  visit.  In  the  religious  services 
which  she  led,  usually  giving  a  talk  based  almost  en- 
tirely on  Scripture  statements,  she  had  a  chance  to 
arouse  the  attention  of  young  women  to  the  idea 
that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  an  enviable  Chris- 
tian life,  and  that  possibly  this  young  woman  now 
speaking  might  be  able  to  explain  definitely  about  it. 
In  other  public  addresses  she  linked  the  local  Asso- 
ciation, perhaps  a  struggling  society  and  one  to 
which  even  its  members  were  indifferent,  to  the 
World's  Student  Christian  Federation,  which  em- 
braces the  sixty  thousand  members  of  student  As- 
sociations in  the  United  States  and  the  women  in 
the  student  Unions  of  Great  Britain,  the  European 
continent,  Asia,  South  Africa,  and  Australia.  She 
helped  them  to  realize  their  part  in  the  World's 


50      FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  with  its  four 
hundred  thousand  members  in  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  In  her  committee  meetings  she  counseled 
with  each  committee  about  the  means  of  reaching 
its  own  purpose;  it  may  be  the  surest  way  of  mak- 
ing the  religious  meetings  forceful,  or  the  Bible 
study  vital,  or  the  missionary  giving  generous,  or 
the  social  life  of  the  women  students  more  cordial. 
Through  the  public  meetings  comes  inspiration, 
through  the  committee  meetings  comes  the  sugges- 
tion of  channels  of  usefulness,  but  in  the  personal 
interview  the  young  girl  or  the  woman  student  de- 
termines to  act  upon  the  vision  set  before  her  in 
the  public  address,  and  through  the  decision  reached 
in  the  interview  she  commits  herself  to  God  and  lays 
hold  of  His  power  for  accomplishment. 

As  Miss  Bridges  entered  a  school,  she  went  as  a 
representative  of  Jesus  Christ,  from  whom  her  call 
had  come,  and  with  whom  she  spent  the  first  hour 
of  every  day.  This  security  gave  her  a  poise  that 
was  never  disturbed  by  circumstances,  but  which 
could  adapt  itself  to  those  in  which  she  was  placed. 
She  came  into  the  small  colleges  Avith  an  open  spirit, 
ready  to  appreciate  and  be  pleased,  and  with  a  sin- 
cere interest  in  the  school,  its  location,  equipment, 
patronage,  the  problems  of  its  faculty,  and  the  de- 
sires of  its  students.  She  came  into  the  larger  col- 
leges with  a  dependence  upon  God  that  shut  out  the 
difficulties  bulking  themselves  before  her.  She  knew 


EARLY   WORK  51 

that  at  the  right  time,  either  during  her  visit  or  aft- 
erward— it  was  immaterial  to  her — God  would  open 
out,  far  beyond  these  difficulties,  broad  reaches  of 
usefulness  to  the  Association  and  a  place  of  enlarge- 
ment for  each  seeking  Christian  girl.  It  seemed  as 
if  her  philosophy  were  this :  That  in  any  situation 
God  would  give  her,  in  answer  to  prayer,  power  for 
what  He  expected  her  to  do  there.  Work  which  she 
could  not  accomplish,  if  she  were  conscious  of  His 
presence,  either  was  not  hers  to  do  or  not  to  be 
done  by  her  at  that  time. 

The  attitude  she  held  towards  institutions  was 
paralleled  in  her  relation  to  individual  young  wom- 
en. No  girl  was  too  obscure  to  gain  her  attention, 
and  no  college  woman  was  too  strongly  entrenched 
in  her  own  intellectual  pride,  or  the  defense  of  some 
strange  new  man-made  religion,  to  fail  to  recognize 
that  Miss  Bridges  must  have  grounds  for  her  faith 
that  might  at  least  be  looked  into. 

Beginning  with  October,  1900,  she  visited  in  or- 
der Weaverville  College,  the  Asheville  Normal  and 
Collegiate  Institute,  Asheville  College  for  Women, 
Greensboro  Female  College,  Peace  Institute,  and  six 
other  institutions  in  North  Carolina;  Limestone, 
Converse,  and  Due  West  Colleges  in  South  Caro- 
lina; Lucy  Cobb  Institute,  the  State  Normal  School 
at  Athens,  Brenau  College,  and  six  others  in  Geor- 
gia; thirteen  in  Tennessee,  including  the  cluster  of 
institutions  in  Nashville,  and  thirteen  in  Kentucky. 


52      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

During  the  spring  of  1901,  the  eighth  biennial  con- 
vention of  the  Associations  affiliated  with  the  Ameri- 
can Committee  met  in  Nashville,  for  the  first  time 
being  entertained  by  one  of  the  Southern  Associa- 
tions. Because  of  her  acquaintance  with  the  schools 
and  students  in  that  vicinity,  Miss  Bridges  rendered 
particularly  valuable  service  on  that  occasion.  It 
was  the  first  time  she  had  met  with  representatives 
of  the  whole  Association  field,  and  those  who  first 
saw  her  there  recorded  a  distinct  impression  that  the 
power  of  this  young  woman  would  be  felt  as  she  be- 
came more  experienced.  This  convention  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  tour  in  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  the  Caro- 
linas,  and  by  her  second  attendance  upon  the  Ashe- 
ville  Conference. 

When  the  thought  of  a  Southern  Conference  was 
first  projected,  in  1895 — lt  was  nel(i  that  year  in 
Rogersville,  Tennessee — this  objection  was  brought 
forward :  "The  plan  of  gathering  a  company  of  col- 
lege girls  for  a  ten  days'  meeting  may  do  in  the 
North,  where  the  students  are  older  and  accustomed 
to  traveling  to  college  alone,  but  our  Southern  girls 
could  hardly  go  without  chaperones,  and  that  would 
be  impossible  to  arrange  for  any  large  number  of 
delegations."  But  the  impossible  which  happens  so 
frequently  as  to  become  probable,  happened  in  this 
instance,  to  the  great  advantage  of  all  concerned. 
Each  college  represented  sent  a  woman  teacher  in- 
terested in  Christian  things  as  the  chaperone  of  its 


EARLY   WORK  53 

delegation,  and  this  company  of  faculty  members, 
larger  and  more  significant  than  in  any  other  of  the 
summer  conferences,  has  developed  to  be  the 
strength  of  this  conference  and  of  the  various  state 
committees,  and  the  key  to  Association  permanence 
in  scores  of  colleges  throughout  the  South.  The 
Southern  Conference  has  other  distinctive  qualities. 
It  has  always  been  located  high  up  in  the  moun- 
tains, where  sunrise  is  a  glory,  and  the  coming  on  of 
evening  a  call  to  reverence  and  adoration.  The  at- 
tendant body  is  always  composed  of  younger  girls 
than  those  present  at  the  other  conferences,  and  the 
graciousness  of  voice  and  manner  of  this  great  com- 
pany of  Southern  girls  can  never  be  forgotten.  It 
is  little  wonder  that  those  who  participate  in  the 
conferences,  year  after  year,  are  always  happy  to  be 
assigned  to  Asheville. 

Because  Frances  Bridges'  own  spiritual  force  had 
increased  mightily  at  a  summer  conference,  she 
longed  to  see  members  of  every  Association  entering 
into  this  vital  atmosphere.  She  knew  well  that 
hardly  a  girl  ever  returned  home  without  a  larger 
outlook  of  mind  and  an  increased  love  to  God  and 
to  her  neighbors,  even  though  for  the  first  time  she 
realized  that  these  "neighbors"  might  be  in  the  ut- 
termost part  of  the  earth. 

In  the  second  year  in  the  South  the  first  four 
months  were  spent  in  the  Gulf  States,  and  after  at- 
tendance upon   the   Student  Volunteer   Movement 


54      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

convention  at  Toronto,  Canada,  the  last  of  Febru- 
ary, 1902,  she  made  a  tour  of  the  Associations  in 
North  and  South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Ken- 
tucky. The  year  closed  with  the  Asheville  Confer- 
ence. 

Results  of  many  kinds  were  manifest  in  these 
visits.  At  one  place  a  Bible  class  was  organized 
among  the  interested  faculty  women;  in  other  in- 
stitutions there  were  several  girls  who  gave  their 
hearts  to  God  for  the  first  time.  In  another  place 
the  college  president  said :  "In  these  years  that  the 
Association  has  been  in  my  school  the  discipline  has 
been  an  increasingly  easy  matter,"  and  other  presi- 
dents and  faculty  members  bore  testimony  to  the 
good  scholarship  and  deportment,  as  well  as  the  fine 
Christian  character,  of  the  Association  girls. 

Again  and  again  she  was  gratified  to  find  how  the 
Association  was  gaining  a  place  of  respect  in  the 
eyes  of  faculty  and  students  generally.  She  was 
also  delighted  to  see  how  the  students  brought  the 
secretary,  in  her  visits,  into  touch  with  the  young 
women  who  most  needed  some  word  of  personal 
counsel. 

In  one  college,  in  a  visit  of  seven  days,  in  addi- 
tion to  her  public  addresses  and  the  meetings  with 
committees,  personal  interviews  were  held  with 
twenty-two  girls.  As  a  result  of  those  interviews 
four  united  with  the  church,  and  others,  already  pro- 
fessing Christians,  declared  they  knew  for  the  first 


EARLY   WORK  55 

time  Christ  as  their  Savior.  Every  such  outpouring 
of  God's  Spirit  she  was  prompt  to  recognize  as  an 
answer  to  prayers  that  had  been  definitely  made. 

In  many  institutions  the  words  "Young  Women's 
Christian  Association"  were  synonymous  with  a 
weekly  prayer  service  of  more  or  less  interest,  but 
she  endeavored  to  convince  the  members  of  such  an 
Association  that  the  religious  meeting  was  only  the 
center,  not  the  entire  circle,  of  Association  life,  and 
that  the  Association  that  would  most  glorify  God 
was  one  through  which  the  very  purpose  of  every 
life  in  the  college  would  be  deepened  and  lives  be 
absolutely  changed.  The  meeting  might  help  in- 
dividuals, but  the  individuals  should  go  out  from 
the  meeting  and  help  others. 

Because  of  this  wholesome  spiritual  influence  she 
won  her  way,  so  far  as  is  known,  in  every  school 
and  college.  The  first  appeal  was  almost  invariably 
made  by  her  beauty  and  the  charm  of  her  personal- 
ity. This  led  to  an  interest  in  the  work  she  repre- 
sented and  to  the  Master  whom  she  served. 

One  wrote  of  her : 

"Some  years  ago  I  was  very  much  attracted  to  Miss 
Bridges,  and  she  won  the  love  and  admiration  of  every 
girl  in  our  school.  This  is  the  experience  of  dozens  of 
other  schools  she  visited.  By  mere  acquaintance  we  knew 
that  her  religion  was  her  life,  and  by  contact  with  her  all 
were  obliged  to  feel  the  influence  of  her  purity  and  con- 
secration." 


56      FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

A  teacher  in  a  college  where  Miss  Bridges  had 
organized  an  Association  some  years  ago,  wrote,  in 
regard  to  the  possibility  of  securing  a  resident  sec- 
retary for  their  institution : 

"Our  president,  who  is  deeply  interested  in  the  matter, 
will  call  on  you  and  ask  for  a  recommendation.  He'll  tell 
you  he  wants  a  secretary  just  like  Miss  Bridges.  She  was 
his  ideal  of  a  Young  Women's  Christian  Association 
worker,  as  she  was  of  many  others.  A  winsome,  tactful 
woman,  who  would  appeal  to  these  students,  would  have 
a  field  of  influence  well-nigh  unlimited." 

A  state  chairman,  in  considering  the  recommenda- 
tion of  a  secretary  to  a  large  university,  remarked : 

"It  makes  no  difference  whom  we  send,  she  can't  meas- 
ure up  to  the  standard  they  have  set  for  their  secretary, 
Frances  Bridges.  She  is  the  only  one  they  can  ever  re- 
member, the  only  one  that  ever  made  a  real  impression 
there." 

A  gentleman  who  has  been  president  of  a  wom- 
an's college  for  nearly  a  score  of  years,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  reason  of  her  permanent  influence,  said : 

"Miss  Bridges  appealed  to  our  girls  more  than  any 
woman  who  has  ever  come  to  our  college.  Nearly  all 
the  able  women  whom  our  girls  know  as  teachers  or  sec- 
retaries either  seemed  too  intellectual  or  too  absorbed  in 
religious  affairs  to  seem  natural,  or  at  least  to  make  the 
girls  want  to  be  like  them.  But  Miss  Bridges  was  so 
womanly  and  unaffected,  her  type  of  mind  and  of  Chris- 


EARLY   WORK  57 

tianity  was  so  cordial  and  lovable,  that  she  seemed  like 
one  of  themselves;  far  above  them,  no  doubt,  but  of  the 
same  kind.  Our  girls  said  they  did  not  want  careers,  but 
just  to  be  useful  women  in  ordinary  places,  and  they  felt 
sure  that  Miss  Bridges  would  marry  and  make  a  beautiful 
home  and  have  the  kind  of  a  life  they  could  all  imitate." 

Such  elements  as  brought  success  in  her  early 
tours  were  present  all  through  her  life  as  a  secre- 
tary. Every  detail  was  worked  out  in  prayer,  or 
rather,  she  depended  on  prayer  to  determine  these 
details.  To  a  state  secretary,  in  whose  territory  she 
visited  some  years  later,  she  writes : 

"I  understand  that  you  have  requested  some  visitation 
for  your  denominational  colleges.  A  great  many  things 
are  crowding  in  now,  so  I  pray  that  we  both  may  have 
God's  own  wisdom  in  the  selection  of  the  colleges  to  be 
visited,  that  the  ones  may  be  selected  which  you  feel  need 
such  help  most  keenly." 

And  this  to  a  university  for  which  dates  had  been 
set: 

"I  cannot  begin  to  tell  you  how  it  rejoices  me  to  know 
of  the  preparation  you  are  all  making.  We  are  sure  God 
is  going  to  bless  and  answer  the  expectations  and  prayers 
that  have  come  to  you  from  Him,  along  with  a  vision  of 
the  need.  The  thought  of  the  large  opportunity  and  the 
great  need  almost  frightens  me.  I  am  still  very  thankful 
for  the  opportunity  to  give  the  kind  of  talk  you  suggest. 
I  know  some  of  you  are  praying  very  earnestly  about  this, 
and  I  want  to  suggest  that  you  pray  mightily  that  the 


58      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

Word  of  God  may  have  free  course  and  run  and  be  glori- 
fied." 

To  another  college : 

"I  understand  some  of  you  girls  have  had  a  most  ear- 
nest desire  for  a  spiritual  awakening.  I  wish  I  might  hear 
from  you  just  as  soon  as  possible  about  your  work,  and 
also  about  the  plans  you  have  made  or  are  expecting  to 
make.  Then  I  will  know  what  to  do.  I  wish  you  to  tell 
me  something  about  the  spirit  among  the  girls  toward  the 
Association,  what  your  greatest  needs  are,  and  what  are 
the  difficulties.  How  much  detail  help  and  how  much  in- 
terested support  do  you  count  on  from  your  faculty?  I 
judge  from  what  I  already  know  that  they  are  very  loyal 
to  the  work.  I  don't  want  to  know  so  much  about  the 
organization  as  about  the  atmosphere  in  the  college  and 
the  attitude  toward  Christian  things.  I  know  you  have 
been  praying  about  this  visit,  but  I  want  to  urge,  before 
you  go  any  further,  that  you  shall  ask  God  to  show  to  you 
individually  what  He  wants  from  this  visit,  and  I  will  ask 
Him,  and  let  us  pray  also  that  if  there  is  anything  in  the 
life  of  any  one  of  us  that  will  hinder  this  blessing  He  will 
take  it  away,  and  may  we  be  honest  in  giving  Him  that 
right.    Then  we  can  pray  with  importunity." 

She  was  most  careful  to  use  time  and  strength  to 
the  best  advantage,  as  can  be  seen  by  her  comments 
on  a  proposed  schedule : 

"I  rather  think  because  you  have  put  the  gospel  meet- 
ing at  the  chapel  hour  that  you  were  planning  to  have  it  a 
union  meeting.  Is  that  so?  Because  I  would  rather  not 
have  that.    I  feel  very  sure,  and  so  do  our  other  workers, 


EARLY   WORK  59 

that  in  any  evangelistic  work  we  can  have  very  much 
stronger,  more  lasting  results  if  the  young  women  are  by 
themselves,  or  the  young  men  by  themselves.  I  fear,  too, 
that  the  schedule  is  too  crowded — from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  very  girls  we  wish  to  reach,  as  well  as  from  the 
point  of  view  of  my  own  strength.  I  would  gladly  do  as 
much  work ;  but  I  do  not  believe  as  good  results  will  come 
from  having  as  many  meetings.  I  would  like  to  ask,  too, 
just  what  was  to  be  the  nature  of  the  noon  prayer-meet- 
ing. I  believe  that  it  would  be  better  to  let  that  12:00- 
12:30  hour  be  given  up  to  those  girls  who  would  be  most 
interested  in  doing  personal  work  and  to  let  me  have  a 
personal  workers'  class  every  day  at  that  time;  then  I 
could  train  the  girls,  I  would  think,  into  doing  the  very 
work  that  I  want  them  to  do  in  helping  me  in  these  evan- 
gelistic meetings,  and  especially  in  conserving  the  results 
of  the  visit.  For  the  way  in  which  you  keep  up  the  in- 
terest after  a  secretary  is  gone  is  almost  as  important,  or 
next  in  importance  to  the  value  of  the  secretary's  visit  in 
itself.  Besides,  I  think  that  if  we  announce  so  many 
meetings  for  all  the  students  it  will  overwhelm  some  girls 
who  are  very  busy,  and  it  will  make  more  indifferent  still 
some  of  the  indifferent  girls.  So  I  would  like  to  suggest 
that  there  be  just  one  evangelistic  meeting  each  day,  and 
I  will  leave  you  to  choose  the  time  for  it.  In  addition  to 
that,  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  teach  this  personal  workers' 
class,  and  I  will  be  very  glad  to  meet  socially,  as  you  have 
planned,  the  girls  and  the  wives  of  the  faculty,  and  very 
glad  to  give  that  time  on  Saturday  night  to  talking  the 
matter  over  with  the  faculty.  And  I  see  no  reason  why  I 
should  not  meet  with  the  two  Bible  classes.  But  I  trust 
that  you  will  understand  again  if  I  say  that  I  would  rather 
not  lead  the  union  Young  Men's  and  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association  meeting." 


60      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

She  also  studied  very  carefully  into  the  conditions 
at  a  college  that  might  hinder  spiritual  growth  or 
freedom  in  aggressive  effort.  In  regard  to  one  As- 
sociation, she  admits : 

"There  are  two  factions  of  girls  here,  just  about  at 
swords'  points,  and  they  have  let  this  bitter  spirit  come 
first  in  the  Association.  I  go  there  with  the  purpose  of 
working  for  a  deeper,  truer  Christian  life,  rather  than  of 
attacking  this  special  problem,  praying  for  discernment 
and  the  Spirit's  power." 

She  also  had  unusual  courage  for  a  person  of  her 
humility  and  modesty.  Of  one  very  prominent  col- 
lege, where  the  Association  had  not  long  been  estab- 
lished, she  writes : 

"This  one  year  has  gained  for  the  Association  the  in- 
terest and  confidence  of  an  increasing  number  of  the  fac- 
ulty, and  has  made  it  more  and  more  a  factor  in  the  stu- 
dent life,  though  it  is  not  yet  what  it  should  be.  Through 
it,  too,  in  part,  certain  wholesome  religious  influences 
have  been  thrown  about  the  whole  college,  as  the  added 
half-holiday,  to  do  away  with  Sunday  studying,  and  the 
compulsory  chapel  service,  which  is  responded  to  most 
loyally.  Probably,  also,  as  a  result  of  the  talk  the  presi- 
dent of  the  college  and  I  had  together,  some  plan  will  be 
adopted  to  increase  the  church  attendance." 

At  another  college,  where  the  faculty  are  devoted 
Christians  and  most  loyal  in  their  intelligent  and  ac- 
tive sympathy,  and  where  the  organization  was  in 


EARLY   WORK  61 

very  good  general  order,  she  was  able  to  touch  again 
certain  vital  points.  In  their  fear  of  a  false,  or  at 
least  misguided,  evangelistic  spirit  in  the  Associa- 
tion, there  had  been  a  discouragement  of  the  doing 
of  personal  work,  or  of  any  training  for  it.  Sabbath 
studying  was  also  carried  to  excess.  The  president 
and  his  wife,  in  personal  conversation,  asked  for  any 
criticisms  or  suggestions  of  the  student  life,  and  she 
courageously  mentioned  both  of  these  as  hindering 
the  deepest  spiritual  development.  They  immedi- 
ately took  into  consideration  the  change  of  the  week- 
ly holiday  to  obviate  any  apparent  necessity  for 
Sabbath  studying. 

Before  starting  out  on  a  tour,  she  tried,  if  possi- 
ble, to  work  out  the  addresses  which  would  be  called 
for.  Her  preparation  was  most  careful.  Her  papers 
are  full  of  jotted  memoranda,  like  the  following : 

"Suggested  verses  on  topics  for  talks  in  Religious 
Meetings : 

i.  The  Best.    I  Corinthians  9:24  (last  clause). 

2.  Humility.    'He  must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease'  " ; 

and  on  the  reverse  of  the  sheet : 

"And  it  was  to  them  that  Paul  brought  a  gospel  that 
would  humble,  'to  the  Greeks,  foolishness/  Men  must  be 
brought  low  before  God  that  they  may  recognize  His 
greatness.  The  Christ  who  was  crucified  in  weakness, 
liveth  through  the  power  of  God,  and  was  showing  His 
power  in  their  lives.    'Finally,  brethren,  be  perfected,  be 


62      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

comforted,  be  of  the  same  mind;  live  in  peace,  and  the 
God  of  peace  shall  be  with  you.' " 

She  kept  a  commonplace-book,  filled  with  sugges- 
tions and  quotations  that  might  be  of  use  in  her  ad- 
dresses. Among  them  are  these  verses  from  Rich- 
ard Watson  Gilder  and  George  MacDonald: 

"If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man 
And  only  a  man — I  say 
That  of  all  mankind  I  will  cleave  to  Him 
And  to  Him  will  I  cleave  alway. 

"If  Jesus  Christ  is  God 

And  the  only  God — I  swear 
I  will  follow  Him  through  heaven  and  hell, 
The  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  air." 


"THE   INDISPENSABLE   CHRIST 

"I  am  so  weak,  dear  Lord,  I  cannot  stand 

One  moment  without  Thee; 
But  oh,  the  tenderness  of  Thy  enfolding, 
And  oh,  the  faithfulness  of  Thy  upholding, 
And  oh,  the  strength  of  Thy  right  hand — 

That  strength  is  enough  for  me. 

"I  am  so  needy,  Lord,  and  yet  I  know 

All  fulness  dwells  in  Thee; 
And,  hour  by  hour,  that  never-failing  treasure 
Supplies  and  fills  in  overflowing  measure 
My  last  and  greatest  need,  and  so 

Thy  grace  is  enough  for  me. 


EARLY   WORK  63 

"It  is  so  sweet  to  trust  Thy  word  alone; 

I  do  not  ask  to  see 
The  unveiling  of  Thy  purpose,  or  the  shining 
Of  future  light  on  mysteries  untwining; 
Thy  promise-roll  is  all  my  own — 

Thy  word  is  enough  for  me. 

"There  were  strange  soul-depths,  restless,  vast  and  broad, 

Unfathomed  as  the  sea — 
An  infinite  craving  for  some  infinite  stilling; 
But  now  Thy  perfect  love  is  perfect  filling; 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  my  Lord,  my  God, 

Thou,  thou  art  enough  for  me." 

She  kept  full  notes  on  her  individual  Bible  study, 
and  also  upon  the  courses  in  which  she  followed  lec- 
tures or  printed  outlines  prepared  by  others.  She 
was  most  keen  about  learning  from  any  one  who  had 
studied  in  a  different  line  or  to  greater  depths  than 
had  she  herself,  and  she  took  pains  to  preserve  sta- 
tistics, policies,  data  of  any  kind  that  would  inform 
her.  Whatever  she  gave  out,  however,  had  first  been 
absorbed  into  her  own  life,  and  was  an  expression 
of  truth  as  she  knew  and  lived  it.  Again  and  again 
there  would  be  two  or  three  laboriously  made  out- 
lines for  an  address  which  was  to  be  given  on  some 
occasion  considered  very  important  by  those  who 
had  the  program  in  charge.  She  did  not  wait  for 
"final  inspiration."  She  felt  sure  that  God  could 
inspire  her  as  well  in  the  days  of  preparation  as  in 
the  hour  of  public  delivery. 


64      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

The  space  of  two  years  was  all  that  was  given 
to  the  Southern  Associations.  In  her  report  to  the 
state  committees  in  June,  1902,  she  said: 


"The  policy  has  been  the  same  during  the  two  years, 
namely,  to  strengthen  and  solidify  the  work  already  or- 
ganized, rather  than  to  go  out  into  new  fields.  That  policy 
has  been  carried  out  more  in  the  second  than  in  the  first 
year." 

Still,  when  Frances  Bridges  began  her  work  as 
secretary  for  the  Carolinas,  the  Gulf  States,  and 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  there  were  in  affiliation 
with  those  committees  sixty-eight  student  Associa- 
tions, with  twenty-six  hundred  members,  and  only 
one  city  Association — that  in  Nashville,  Tennessee. 
When  she  gave  up  this  position  two  years  later,  the 
membership  had  increased  to  thirty-four  hundred. 
When  she  retired  from  her  succeeding  position,  in 
1905,  the  sixty-eight  student  Associations  had 
grown  to  ninety-five,  the  one  city  Association  had 
been  augmented  by  nine  others  in  cities  and  two  in 
cotton-mill  villages ;  while  four  traveling  secretaries 
were  occupied  with  the  field  that  had  been  all  hers 
at  the  beginning  of  her  Association  career. 

After  the  Asheville  Conference  of  1902  Miss 
Bridges  returned  to  her  parents'  home  in  Bridge- 
ton,  receiving,  as  she  left  the  conference,  a  Bible  in 
which  these  words  are  written : 


EARLY   WORK  65 

7,°/°  1Cad  y°Ung  WOmen  to  Jesus  Christ  ^  their  Lord 
and  Master  that  they  will  surrender  to  Him  their  daily 
hves  and  share  His  passion  for  extending  His  Kingdom." 

This  Bible,  marked  and  lettered  from  cover  to 
cover,  is  another  record  of  the  lessons  she  was  daily 
learning  with  her  Master. 


IV 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY 

IN  the  summer  of  1902,  when  the  resignation  of 
Miss  Effie  Kelly  Price,  as  senior  student  sec- 
retary for  the  American  Committee  of  Young 
Women's  Christian  Associations,  called  for  the  re- 
organization of  the  student  department,  it  was  de- 
cided to  assign  each  national  secretary  hereafter 
added  to  the  staff  to  some  one  particular  educational 
group.  Money  had  already  been  promised  for  the 
support  of  the  secretary  among  the  denominational 
colleges,  and  to  this  field  Miss  Bridges  was  called 
at  once,  but  it  was  not  until  after  the  opening  of 
the  new  year  that  she  was  free  to  accept  the  invita- 
tion. Then  the  same  necessity  for  her  presence  at 
home  no  longer  existed,  and  in  February,  1903,  she 
arrived  in  Chicago.  There  was  opportunity  for  ac- 
quaintance and  consultation  with  committee  mem- 
bers and  secretaries  at  the  time  of  the  February 
meeting  of  the  American  Committee,  also  for  an 
interview  with  the  devoted  Christian  woman  whom 
she  represented  upon  the  field,  and  whose  life,  as 
well  as  gifts,  was  consecrated  to  the  extension  of 

66 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY         67 

Christ's  Kingdom,  and  whose  prayers  accompanied 
Miss  Bridges  on  every  tour. 

Since  the  Indiana  State  Committee  had  desired  a 
month  of  evangelistic  work  in  that  territory,  it  had 
arranged  an  itinerary  for  Miss  Bridges,  including 
Butler  University,  Irvington;  Franklin  College, 
Franklin;  DePauw  University,  Greencastle;  the 
University  of  Indiana,  Bloomington;  and  Earlham 
College,  Richmond.  The  committee  members  met 
her  at  headquarters  for  conference;  they  spent  an 
hour  each  day  in  intercession  for  her,  and  in  every 
way  aided  the  undertaking.  Of  the  last  visit  of  this 
series  Miss  Bridges  wrote: 

"In  the  case  of  all  the  non-Christians,  who  were  led 
either  by  me  or  the  Association  workers  to  take  some 
definite  stand  in  their  own  hearts  and  publicly,  it  was  the 
result  of  definite  prayer  on  the  part  of  some  girl  or  teacher 
in  the  college.  The  prayer  life  of  the  Christians  there  was 
an  inspiration  and  spiritual  blessing  to  me." 

Then  followed  a  bit  of  pioneer  work  among  a 
number  of  institutions  in  West  Virginia,  some  of 
which  had  had  few,  if  any,  visits  of  this  nature :  A 
Normal  School  in  Huntington,  then  the  Lewisburg 
School  at  Ronceverte,  Salem  College,  Broaddus 
College  at  Clarksburg,  the  West  Virginia  Con- 
ference Seminary  at  Buckhannon,  Fairmount  Nor- 
mal School,  West  Liberty  Normal  School;  then 
Bethany  College,  reached  by  a  circuitous  route  of 


68      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

thirty- four  miles  to  go  a  distance  of  four ;  the  Uni- 
versity of  West  Virginia  at  Morgantown,  a  Normal 
School  at  Shepardstown,  and  finally  Powhatan  -Col- 
lege at  Charles  Town.     The  trip  up  to  Athens,  a 
seat  of  learning  three  thousand  feet  above  sea-level, 
would    never    be    forgotten.     The   typical   country 
"hack,"  carrying  mail,  trunks  and  passengers,  took 
the  whole  day  for  the  twenty-eight  miles,  resting  at 
noon  for  dinner  at  a  characteristic  half-way  house. 
The  Green  Brier  River  and  the  New  River  must  be 
crossed :  one  by  fording  when  the  weather  is  favora- 
ble, although  it  is  impassable  after  severe  storms; 
the  other  by  a  trolley  ferry  propelled  by  a  pole  and 
guided  by  a  chain  sliding  on  a  wire  stretched  from 
bank  to  bank.   Then  came  the  climb  into  the  moun- 
tains, up  which  the  roads  are  steep  and  rough,  but 
where  there  are  glorious  views  and  stimulating  air 
on  a  fine  day.   This  made  a  severe  schedule ;  but  the 
heart  of  the  secretary  warmed  as  she  saw  the  look 
on  the  face  of  the  young  president  of  one  of  these 
Associations,  who  said  to  her,  in  relation  to  her  out- 
side interests:    "Miss  Bridges,  I  have  put  this  As- 
sociation work  first  of  all — before  anything  else." 
And,  best  of  all,  what  she  did  has  endured.    In  one 
school,  where  she  organized  twelve  girls  into  an  As- 
sociation, and  there  seemed  little  to  encourage,  that 
small  band  has  grown  until  the  Association  practi- 
cally occupies  the  school,  and  has  come  to  be  one 
of  the  best  Associations  in  the  State.     She  copied 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    69 

into  her  commonplace-book  an  inscription  which  at- 
tracted her  attention  over  the  door  of  the  Old  Stone 
Church,  Lewisburg,  West  Virginia : 

"This  building  was  erected  in  the  year  1796  at  the  ex- 
pense of  a  few  of  the  first  inhabitants  of  this  land,  to  com- 
memorate their  affection  and  esteem  for  the  Holy  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

Reader, 

If  you  are  inclined  to  applaud  their  virtues,  give  God  the 

glory." 

The  last  of  April  was  spent  at  the  ninth  biennial 
convention  of  the  American  Committee,  which  met 
at  Wilkes-Barre,  Pennsylvania.  This  was  Miss 
Bridges'  real  introduction  to  the  general  field  as  na- 
tional secretary.  She  speaks  of  it  as  a  time  of  "in- 
spiration, fellowship,  and  planning  for  the  future 
that  was  surely  needed, "  and  from  which  she  went 
out  "with  clearer  vision  of  immediate  necessities  and 
a  deeper  purpose  to  be  used  as  God  wills ;  but,  above 
all,  with  the  invigorating  strength  that  comes  from 
fellowship  with  God  and  His  workers."  All  the  sec- 
retaries met  for  several  days  of  conference  at  the 
close  of  the  public  convention,  and  the  traveling  sec- 
retaries remained  one  additional  day  for  still  fur- 
ther conference.  In  these  small  gatherings  could  be 
seen,  even  so  early  in  Miss  Bridges'  career,  her  will- 
ingness to  listen  to  what  more  experienced  workers 
had  to  say,  her  readiness  to  do  any  task,  no  matter 


70      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

how  simple  or  how  tedious,  that  might  be  asked  of 
her. 

When  Miss  Bridges  reached  the  Woman's  College 
of  Baltimore,  for  a  four  days'  visit,  she  found  that 
most  careful  preparation  had  been  made  for  the 
meetings,  so  that  her  time  could  be  almost  immedi- 
ately used  in  personal  interviews,  for  which  her  soul 
longed.  She  valued  good  organization  for  what  it 
made  possible,  because  her  time  need  not  be  spent 
then  in  preliminaries,  but  she  could  go  directly  to  the 
real  object  for  which  she  had  come.  Then  followed 
a  visit  to  the  Woman's  College  of  Frederick,  Mary- 
land, where  all  the  students  were  waiting  to  form  an 
Association.  This  town  was  Miss  Bridges'  ancestral 
home.  Her  mother's  family,  the  Boyds  and  the 
Gists,  were  noted  there  for  their  patriotism  and 
piety,  even  from  Revolutionary  times.  Her  great- 
grandfather, David  Boyd,  one  of  the  earliest  settlers 
of  Frederick,  was  a  genuine  patriarch.  His  house- 
hold of  seven  sons  and  three  daughters  and  his 
negro  slaves  were  daily  called  together  for  family 
prayers  both  morning  and  evening.  He  was  ahead 
of  most  of  his  generation  in  the  matter  of  total  ab- 
stinence, and,  instead  of  sending  liquor  to  the  men 
in  the  harvest  field,  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
time,  he  furnished  them  non-alcoholic  drinks.  At 
the  family  altar  it  was  his  daily  petition  that  one  of 
his  sons  might  be  called  to  the  ministry.  He  prob- 
ably did  not  anticipate  a  time  when  women  would 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    71 

be  called  to  a  form  of  Christian  ministry  recognized 
as  a  true  arm  of  the  Church,  or  that  one  of  his 
great-granddaughters  would  be  teaching  the  Bible 
and  speaking  before  religious  gatherings  within 
sound  of  the  very  bells  which  had  called  his  family 
to  Sabbath  worship. 

Then  followed  what  was,  each  year  the  trip  was 
made,  one  of  the  most  congenial  parts  of  the  Asso- 
ciation schedule,  visits  to  a  number  of  academies  in 
the  New  England  territory.  Miss  Bridges  wrote, 
after  a  Sunday  at  Bradford  Academy: 

"It  was  a  rare  inspiration  to  be  in  a  school  of  such 
grand  old  traditions  as  this  one  has,  which  at  the  same 
time  is  not  only  aiming  to  live  up  to  them  but  striving  to 
surpass  them.  I  could  not  help  wishing  each  girl  might 
realize  what  I  did  as  I  looked  up  into  the  pictured  faces 
of  Harriet  Newell  and  Ann  Hazeltine  Judson,  and  thought 
of  their  lives  and  others  who  have  since  followed  them  to 
the  mission  field." 

Visits  to  another  group  of  preparatory  schools 
were  followed  by  a  brief  visit  to  Smith  College, 
where  her  younger  sister,  Margaret,  had  that  year 
entered  as  freshman. 

In  response  to  an  invitation  from  the  Waltham 
Association,  Miss  Bridges  addressed  their  anniver- 
sary in  the  Baptist  Church.  She  speaks  modestly  of 
the  "evident  interest"  shown  by  the  audience  and 
the  sum  of  money  given  for  the  local  Association. 
It  is  extremely  interesting  to  note  the  attitude  Miss 


12.      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

Bridges  always  held  to  the  city  Associations  when- 
ever opportunity  was  given  her  to  enter  in  any  way 
into  their  work.  At  another  time  she  mentioned  her 
satisfaction  in  being  able  to  see  some  of  the  large 
activities  of  the  Pittsburgh  Association,  where  her 
schedule  in  Pennsylvania  allowed  her  a  few  days' 
stay  for  rest  and  observation.  She  accepted  the  in- 
vitation to  speak  at  one  of  the  noon  meetings,  and 
took  as  subject  that  day  one  that  impressed  itself 
upon  her  in  reading  Henry  Drummond's  "The 
Source  of  Power."  Other  city  Associations  where 
she  delivered  addresses  were  Germantown,  Pennsyl- 
vania; Binghamton,  New  York;  and  Charlotte, 
North  Carolina.  When  at  West  Liberty,  West  Vir- 
ginia, a  friend  took  her  down  to  Wheeling  to  meet 
some  ladies  there  who  were  wishing  to  form  a  city 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  which  de- 
sire was  later  carried  to  fulfillment.  Several  of  the 
women  she  met  there  refer  to  her  as  "that  beautiful 
woman  of  deep  spiritual  power."  One  very  happy 
Christmas  was  spent,  as  were  other  incidental  days, 
at  Association  House  in  Chicago,  a  settlement  which 
is  the  center  of  the  social  and  religious  life  of  hun- 
dreds of  young  women  in  the  northwestern  part  of 
the  city.  One  of  her  Smith  classmates,  a  resident 
in  a  settlement  in  New  York  City,  mentioned  her 
acquaintance  with  some  of  her  club  members : 

"The  girls  used  to  come  up  to  my  room  in  the  evening 
to  drink  lemonade  and  eat  cake.    One  of  their  chief  de- 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY         73 

lights  was  to  take  the  pictures  of  my  college  friends, 
choose  the  one  that  they  liked  the  best,  and  then  to  ask 
me  to  tell  them  all  about  her.  Two  girls  who  worked  in 
Hearn's  were  especially  devoted  to  Frances'  picture.  They 
always  called  her  'Our  friend.'  When  I  heard  she  was 
coming  I  wrote  at  once  to  tell  them,  so  that  they  might 
come  to  see  her.  However,  they  did  not  come,  and  I 
realized  something  must  be  the  matter — so  we  went  to 
Hearn's  the  next  day  to  see  what  was  the  trouble.  I  wish 
you  could  have  seen  their  faces  when  she  came  in,  and 
Frances'  face  when  they  said:  'Well,  she  is  just  as  pretty 
as  her  picture.'  They  had  had  to  stay  late  the  night  be- 
fore to  take  stock,  and  they  were  much  disappointed.  From 
that  time  on,  Frances  was  more  than  ever  'Our  friend/ 
and  years  afterward,  when  the  girls  were  in  trouble  of 
any  kind,  they  would  write  to  ask  me  what  'Our  friend' 
would  like  them  to  do.  They  have  never  forgotten  her. 
Wherever  I  have  been  that  picture  has  always  been  on 
my  desk,  and  I  kept  it  there  because  so  many  were  helped 
by  it.  Frances  had  such  a  love  for  the  girls  in  city  life 
and  she  would  so  much  have  liked  to  be  able  to  do  more 
for  them.  I  remember  her  sending  me  some  money  one 
day — just  to  make  some  one  a  little  happier." 

When  Miss  Bridges  presented  to  an  audience  the 
whole  Young  Women's  Christian  Association  Move- 
ment, she  often  used  the  title  "An  Old  Gospel  for  a 
New  Age,"  calling  to  mind  how  God  had  raised  up 
different  instrumentalities  to  carry  a  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  people  of  this  generation,  who  might 
not  be  touched  by  the  methods  of  a  generation  or  a 
century  ago.  Such  an  Association  of  young  wom- 
en was  never  a  question  of  numbers;  it  was  not  a 


74      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

general  aggregate ;  it  was  the  result  of  one,  and  an- 
other, and  another  individual  soul;  every  young 
woman  with  her  own  life-problems,  every  young 
woman  having  something  in  common  with  the 
speaker,  either  her  love  of  home,  or  her  love  of 
Christ,  or  her  womanly  undertaking  of  self-support, 
or  the  acknowledgment  of  all  the  bright  things  that 
have  a  place  in  the  life  of  a  young  woman.  She 
recognized  that  out  from  modern  conditions  af- 
fecting young  women,  arose  certain  tendencies : 
First,  separation  into  smaller  groups,  with  empha- 
sis upon  the  individual;  second,  development  of  in- 
dividual powers;  third,  marked  and  general  desire 
to  get  away  from  the  traditional  in  religion ;  fourth, 
but  no  corresponding  increase  of  judgment  and  de- 
cision in  putting  first  things  first ;  fifth,  a  strong  and 
earnest  desire  to  serve.  These  need  the  gospel  of 
the  grace  and  power  of  God  revealed  in  Christ,  the 
gospel  of  prayer  as  a  working  force,  the  gospel  of  a 
true  perspective,  the  gospel  of  the  joy  of  doing  His 
will,  of  seeing  and  having  things  in  right  relations. 
She  traced  the  spread  of  the  Association  movement 
from  1855,  when  Miss  Robarts  formed  the  Prayer 
Union  and  Lady  Kinnaird  maintained  the  first 
boarding-home  in  London,  down  to  the  present 
world-wide  status  and  membership  of  hundreds  of 
thousands : 

"But  the  largest  achievement  has  not  been  in  numbers 
but  in  the  application  of  the  old  gospel,  the  gospel  of  the 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    75 

Good  Samaritan,  as  seen  in  the  Travelers'  Aid  work,  the 
gospel  of  freedom  in  making  possible  the  all-round  devel- 
opment of  young  women,  the  gospel  of  the  power  of 
Christ  over  sin,  and  the  gospel  of  the  nower  of  prayer 
available  in  every  life." 


For  a  few  days  before  the  opening  of  the  student 
conference  at  Silver  Bay,  Miss  Bridges  worked  with 
the  other  conference  leaders  and  business  managers 
in  making  the  final  arrangements  and  assignments 
for  the  conference.  The  thought  of  "putting  people 
where  they  will  be  most  happy,  for  the  honor  and 
glory  of  God,"  made  even  these  tedious  details  a 
pleasure. 

When  the  conference  began,  Miss  Bridges  had 
charge  of  the  preparatory  school  section.  It  was  the 
first  time  this  had  been  introduced  into  a  large  stu- 
dent conference,  and  upon  four  days  this  little  group 
came  together,  about  thirty  girls  with  three  or  four 
teachers.  So  satisfactory  was  this  plan  that  Miss 
Bridges  had  the  same  work  in  charge  in  1904  and 
1905  with  still  greater  success.  Her  own  experi- 
ence in  boarding-school  as  pupil  and  teacher  made 
her  able  to  understand  the  boarding-school  girls  and 
to  advise  concerning  their  forms  of  Christian  work 
better  than  one  who  knew  only  the  large  woman's 
college,  or  co-educational  university.  The  leaflet  she 
prepared  on  "Religious  Meetings  in  Secondary 
Schools"    revealed   this   knowledge,    especially  the 


y6      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

paragraph  on  the  "Purpose,"  and  the  appendix  giv- 
ing suggestions  for  meeting  topics : 

"The  prayer-meeting  in  a  secondary  school,  as  in  fact 
that  in  any  other  institution,  should  be  the  sincere  ex- 
pression of  the  religious  life  of  that  school.  Meetings  and 
Associations  have  lost  their  hold  because  of  the  effort  to 
express  something  which  was  not  felt.  This  is  particu- 
larly a  necessary  precaution  in  the  secondary  schools.  For 
this  reason  it  will  be  found  helpful  to  have  a  majority  of 
the  subjects  for  these  meetings  based  on  some  Bible  study 
that  is  being  done.  But  the  religious  meeting  should  not 
exist  merely  to  express  the  religious  life  as  it  is.  The 
claim  for  its  being  is  to  make  that  life  deeper  and  more 
real.  Surely  the  purpose  of  the  Christian  Association,  to 
help  young  women  into  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  should  find  here  one  of  its  greatest  means. 
What  a  difference  in  the  life  of  a  school  and  of  an  Asso- 
ciation if  this  purpose  should  be  back  of  all  committee  and 
individual  preparation  for  each  meeting  1" 

"How  shall  we  do  when  in  Rome?  (Away  from  home 
Christians.)     2  Corinthians  5:9,  with  2  Timothy  2:1-7. 

"A  daily  necessity.  Bible  study  rally.  Deuteronomy 
6:4-9;  John  5:39-40  (R.V.). 

"One  day  in  the  life  of  Christ.  What  it  meant  to  the 
world.    (The  Sermon  on  the  Mount.) 

"A  woman  of  high  rank:  Pandita  Ramabai.  See  'The 
Life  of  Pandita  Ramabai/  by  Helen  S.  Dyer. 

"What  some  poets  have  taught  us  of  God.  Psalms  26, 
46  and  91  of  His  loving  care.  Psalm  51  of  His  mercy  and 
our  need  of  cleansing.  Psalm  93  of  His  majesty  and 
power.  ('God's  in  His  heaven  and  all's  right  with  the 
world/) 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    77 

"What  does  it  mean  to  be  a  Christian?  (a)  In  the 
school-room,  (b)  On  the  street,  (c)  At  a  social  occa- 
sion,    (d)   At  home. 

'Tutting  the  ball  in.     1  Corinthians  9:24-27. 

"  'For  your  sakes.'   References  to  'for  your  sakes.' 

"Addition,  not  subtraction.  (A  Christian's  Life.)  Mat- 
thew 6:33.  See  address  'First'  in  Drummond's  'Greatest 
Thing  in  the  World.' 

"  'John  the  Baptist,  one  of  the  world's  seven  greatest 
men.' 

"What  some  artists  have  taught  us  of  the  life  of  Christ. 
Make  use  of  Perry  or  Brown  pictures.  (1)  'The  Arrival 
of  the  Shepherds.'  (2)  'The  Holy  Family.'  (3)  'The 
Child  in  the  Temple.'  (4)  'Christ  and  the  Fisherman.' 
(5)  'The  Good  Shepherd.'" 

She  was  also  chairman  of  the  committee  on  dele- 
gation meetings  which  suggested  uniform  topics  for 
the  good-night  meetings,  and  each  day  brought  to- 
gether all  the  group  leaders  for  prayer  and  confer- 
ence, emphasizing  the  value  of  conducting  these  lit- 
tle family  meetings  without  outside  speakers,  in 
order  to  give  the  delegates  a  chance  for  personal 
participation. 

Her  first  vacation  as  national  secretary  was  spent, 
like  almost  every  other  vacation,  quietly  with  her 
own  family  and  friends.  Mr.  Bridges  had  come,  in 
1903,  as  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  to  the 
beautiful  little  town  of  Conklin,  New  York,  among 
the  hills  overlooking  the  Susquehanna  River.  In 
this  atmosphere  of  quiet  and  rest  and  fellowship 
she  was  strengthened  for  the  year  ahead. 


78      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

After  vacation,  came  the  Geneva  conference. 
This  is  the  historic  summer  conference  of  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association  movement, 
for  the  first  conference  held  in  Bay  View,  Michigan, 
in  1 901,  was  moved  next  year  to  Lake  Geneva,  Wis- 
consin, on  the  grounds  at  the  west  end  of  the  lake, 
owned  by  the  Western  Secretarial  Institute  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  here  it  has 
continued  without  interruption.  On  first  arrival  at 
the  conference  site,  the  visitor  is  sometimes  disap- 
pointed to  find  only  a  little  village  of  tents,  with 
more  substantial  buildings,  of  course,  for  audi- 
torium, dining-hall,  and  other  purposes;  but  when 
she  faces  about  and  looks  down  the  incline  at  the 
limpid  expanse  of  water,  looks  between  the  over- 
hanging branches  of  the  oak-trees  upon  the  shining 
lake  flecked  by  a  passing  breeze,  she  anticipates  with 
regret  each  twilight  and  each  dawn,  because  she 
knows  that  so  much  sooner  will  come  the  time  when 
she  must  leave  the  spot  which  grows  more  dear  and 
more  beautiful  to  her  with  each  hour. 

The  tents  occupied  by  the  leaders  of  the  confer- 
ence stand  close  by  the  edge  of  the  lake.  Here,  in 
the  afternoon  hours,  come  young  women  to  ask  the 
speakers  and  secretaries  about  the  higher  things  and 
the  personal  things  of  life.  They  have  come  to  the 
conference,  perhaps,  not  so  much  for  the  addresses 
or  for  the  formal  Bible  classes  as  to  find  some  an- 
swer to  questions  they  have  been  unable  to  answer 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    79 

for  themselves.  As  one  girl  wrote  Miss  Bridges 
after  a  similar  conference:  "You  did  not  tell  me, 
'God  says  you  must  do  this  or  you  must  do  that/ 
You  just  told  me  about  Jesus  Christ,  and  let  me  find 
out  for  myself  what  He  wanted  me  to  do." 

When  the  lights  are  out  all  over  the  camp,  and 
there  is  no  stir  except  the  movement  of  the  trees, 
there  may  be  heard  from  all  the  lower  row  of  tents 
the  ceaseless  lapping  of  the  water  upon  the  quiet 
shore.  Sunlight  brings  another  day,  filled  with  ap- 
pointments and  responsibilities,  but  Frances  Bridges 
never  left  her  tent  to  meet  these  responsibilities, 
even  in  the  busiest  conference  season,  without  hav- 
ing taken  a  quiet  hour  to  find  out  what  was  God's 
will  concerning  her  that  day.  She  was  not  thinking 
of  others  now,  nor  preparing  for  public  duties ;  she 
was  entering  into  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  her  Re- 
deemer, in  order  that  she  might  present  Him  faith- 
fully to  those  who  should  appeal  to  her  that  day. 

One  interesting  experience  is  referred  to  by  Miss 
Bridges  in  the  following  words : 

"The  day  which  intervened  between  the  student  con- 
ference and  the  secretarial  training  conference  was  spent 
very  unexpectedly  in  Chicago,  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Cyrus 
McCormick,  when  I  was  one  of  a  party  of  ten  who  had 
been  invited  to  tell  Madame  McCormick  of  our  student 
conference  at  Lake  Geneva.  Her  evident  personal  inter- 
est in  us  and  in  the  work  of  the  student  conference,  and 
particularly  in  the  work  in  factories,  is  very  touching." 


80      FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  traveling  secretaries  of 
The  American  Committee  to  hold,  at  the  beginning 
of  each  quarter,  a  prayer  service,  at  which  requests 
for  prayer  were  noted,  and  the  answers  to  prayers 
made  at  previous  times  carefully  recorded.  Topics 
of  every  nature  were  brought  up  at  these  meetings : 

"That  the  work  in  pioneer  states  may  be  so  developed 
that  as  rapidly  as  possible  state  secretaries  may  be  called." 

"That  the  finances  for  the  student  department  may  be 
early  secured." 

"That  the  summer  conferences  shall  work  out  for  gen- 
eral satisfaction." 

"That  the  right  secretaries  for  newly  organized  places 
may  be  secured." 

"For  a  worker  to  look  after  the  interests  of  religious 
work  in  city  Associations,"  etc.,  etc. 

Miss  Bridges  was  a  great  accession  to  this  prayer 
circle,  because  of  her  simple  and  unlimited  faith.  As 
one  looks  back  over  the  petitions  introduced  into 
these  prayer  groups,  and  realizes  how,  before  the 
next  quarterly  meeting,  or  before  a  calendar  year 
had  gone  by,  many  of  them  were  answered,  and  that 
in  later  years  nearly  all  of  them  came  to  fulfillment, 
one  appreciates  better  than  ever  a  faith  that  is  meas- 
ured more  by  love  for  God  than  by  claiming  imme- 
diate results. 

In  The  American  Committee  meetings  Miss 
Bridges  never  took  an  active  part.  When  asked, 
she  would  express  her  opinions  quietly,  and  if  it 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    81 

v/ere  a  matter  of  conviction,  with  decision;  but  she 
felt  that  she  was  rather  one  to  carry  out  the  wishes 
of  the  Committee  with  all  loyalty  than  by  her  advice 
to  help  form  its  policy.  In  the  student  department 
meetings,  however,  she  felt  greater  responsibility. 

Then  followed  the  first  tour  of  fall  conventions, 
beginning  with  the  Wisconsin  convention  at  Beaver 
Dam,  where  she  gave  two  formal  addresses,  besides 
helping  in  the  various  conferences  and  general  meet- 
ings. In  her  address  on  "The  Friendship  of  Jesus 
Christ,,,  Miss  Bridges  said : 

"What  makes  life  worth  living  is  friendship  with  Jesus 
Christ.  Christ  brings  joy  into  our  lives  and  makes  out  of 
us  what  our  best  nature  wants  us  to  be.  We  cannot  be 
friends  with  anyone  without  imbibing  something  of  her 
grace.  This  friendship  with  Jesus  Christ  makes  our  life 
count  for  something,  and,  as  a  result,  we  can  say,  with 
Paul:  'I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me/  You 
want  joy,  peace,  and  rest,  but  there  is  a  difference  be- 
tween wanting  a  thing  and  willing  a  thing.  Friendship 
with  Him  means  telling  Him  to  put  out  of  our  lives  that 
which  does  not  belong  there.  The  basis  of  true  friendship 
is  a  basis  of  mutual  worth.  When  God  opens  your  eyes 
to  see  yourself,  you  see  that  you  are  not  worthy  of  His 
friendship. 

"Herein  is  love:  that  God  loves  us  and  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son  for  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.  In  offer- 
ing friendship  to  us,  Jesus  Christ  took  into  consideration 
that  pride,  namely,  that  we  do  not  want  a  friend  whom 
we  are  not  worthy  of.  So,  on  a  basis  of  mutual  worth, 
those  who  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Savior  can  accept 


82      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

Him  as  a  friend.  When  Jesus  Christ  points  His  finger  to 
some  sin,  unforgiven,  to  some  part  of  our  nature,  some 
part  of  our  social  life  that  we  are  not  ready  to  yield  to 
Him,  it  is  then  that  He  calls  to  us  to  let  Him  take  that 
sin  out  of  our  lives  and  put  in  His  righteousness.  Then 
we  have  a  start  for  our  friendship  with  Jesus  Christ. 
Keep  your  hearts  open,  and  let  Jesus  Christ  talk  to  you; 
let  Him  speak  earnestly  to  those  willing— tenderly  to  those 
who  are  lame.  The  reason  we  do  not  have  this  perfect 
friendship  is  because  we  put  men  in  the  place  of  Jesus 
Christ.  We  give  to  some  worldly  friend  the  love  and  al- 
legiance we  should  give  to  Jesus  Christ.  Some  of  us  stop 
at  the  starting-point  of  friendship,  because  we  think  that 
the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  does  not  have  the  same  laws  ap- 
plied to  it  as  are  applied  to  the  physical  life." 

Several  years  after,  the  chairman  of  the  state 
committee  said  of  this  address : 

"The  vision  that  she  gave  remained  clear  throughout 
the  days  we  were  together  there,  and,  I  doubt  not,  in  many 
hearts  ever  since,  as  it  has  in  mine.  She  stood  before  us, 
so  simple  and  fair,  yet  self  was  completely  effaced  as  she 
held  up  Jesus  Christ  and  all  He  might  mean  in  the  life  of 
a  young  woman." 

The  Illinois  convention  met  at  Galesburg,  and 
here  she  spoke  on  the  topic  "A  Life  with  a  Pur- 
pose," taking  as  her  Scripture  basis  the  words  since 
adopted  as  the  national  motto,  "I  am  come  that  they 
might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly."     She  said : 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    83 

"A  lost  world  is  something  very  dreadful  in  the  sight 
of  Christ,  for  He  gave  His  own  life,  without  which  there 
can  be  no  life.  The  moment  we  are  born  we  begin  to  die. 
We  are  sowing  the  things  we  are  going  to  reap.  The  end 
of  deceit,  cowardice,  selfishness,  is  death. 

"Receiving  of  life  means  turning  away  from  the  selfish 
things  and  taking  in  Christ  only.  In  addition  to  re- 
pentance, there  is  also  the  taking  of  Jesus  into  the  life. 
There  are  those  who  are  not  taking  Him  into  their  lives. 

"My  peace  I  leave  with  you.  Do  we  lose  our  temper 
as  we  did  before  we  were  His  children?  Do  we  criticise 
those  who  do  not  do  as  we  would  have  them  do?  Then 
do  we  sit  down  thoughtfully  and  wonder  and  ask  Him 
why  it  is?  Do  we  have  power  that  He  would  have  us 
have  ?  Why  ?  He  has  promised  it  and  expects  us  to  have 
it.  It  means  we  are  going  to  act  and  talk  so  that  others 
will  know  we  are  His  children. 

"Each  one  stands  in  one  of  three  places: 

"1.  Those  who  do  not  know  Jesus  Christ  at  all  (yes  or 
no). 

"2.  Those  who  are  Christians  within  them,  but  do  not 
know  the  abundance  of  life  (yes  or  no). 

"3.  Those  who  are  obedient  to  the  call  to  the  highest." 

At  the  Indiana  convention  at  Richmond  she  spoke 
on  "Expectation"  and  on  "How  to  Know  the  Will 
of  God,"  and  at  the  Iowa  convention  at  Ottumwa 
she  assisted  in  the  student  conference,  and  on  other 
occasions.  At  several  of  these  conventions  it  was 
her  joy  to  lead  the  Sunday  afternoon  gospel  service, 
and  in  following  years  reference  was  made  to  young 
women  who  first  found  Christ  as  their  Savior,  or 
who  experienced  the  absolute  restfulness  of  complete 


84      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

surrender  to  God's  will,  because  of  what  the  speaker 
had  represented  Jesus  Christ  to  be  in  these  Sunday 
afternoon  services. 

There  was  some  incidental  college  visiting  during 
this  fall,  and  then  several  weeks  of  work  under  the 
supervision  of  the  State  Committee  of  Colorado  and 
Wyoming.  Miss  Bridges  was  intensely  interested 
in  this.     She  writes  of  that  tour: 

"This  Colorado  field  is  small  and  far  removed  from  the 
center  of  our  work,  but  it  is  without  a  doubt  strategic. 
The  Associations  already  in  the  field  are  showing  what 
can  be  done.  I  feel  I  can  hardly  speak  too  strong  a  word 
for  what  this  state  committee  is  accomplishing." 

It  is  curious  that,  although  this  was  her  first  visit 
to  the  Rocky  Mountain  country,  and  in  her 
stay  at  Colorado  College  her  horizon  was  dominated 
by  the  snowy  crest  of  Pike's  Peak,  no  mention  of  the 
scenery  finds  its  way  into  her  reports.  She  was  ab- 
sorbed in  the  real  purpose  of  her  tour,  strengthen- 
ing the  existing  work  and  helping  the  students  at  the 
State  Normal  School  at  Greeley  to  form  a  well- 
grounded,  aggressive  organization. 

The  winter  of  1904  opened  with  visits  to  three 
colleges  in  Oxford,  Ohio:  the  Western  College  for 
Women,  Miami  University,  and  Oxford  College; 
then  a  visit  to  a  group  of  schools  in  Rhode  Island, 
and  attendance  upon  the  New  England  convention 
held  that  year  at  Holyoke.     Here  Miss  Bridges  had 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    85 

charge  of  the  preparatory  school  section  and  spoke 
on  "The  College  Girl  in  City  Work."  A  short  trip 
to  Northampton  gave  her  an  opportunity  to  speak 
before  the  Association  of  her  alma  mater,  in  a  life- 
work  meeting,  on  "The  College  Graduate  in  the 
Christian  Association  Movement." 

Through  the  generosity  of  a  member  of  The 
American  Committee,  a  scholarship  at  the  Bible 
Teachers'  Training  School  in  New  York  City  al- 
lowed different  secretaries  in  turn  to  have  a  month 
of  Bible  study  under  various  instructors  there.  Miss 
Bridges  writes: 

"The  time  has  gone  by  only  too  quickly  in  the  blessed 
joy  of  taking  in.  We  secretaries  very  soon  get  to  the 
place  of  a  sponge  wrung  dry,  and  so  the  privilege  of  this 
month  is  very  blessed,  drinking  in  some  of  God's  wonder- 
ful truths,  that  we  may  the  more  practically  and  helpfully 
give  them  out.  The  work  which  is  to  follow  can  tell  bet- 
ter than  any  words  now  the  advantage  this  month  of  study 
and  of  thought  has  been  to  me.  From  this  study  I  have 
the  material  and  inspiration  for  many  more  months  of 
individual  study." 

And,  shortly  after,  she  added : 

"I  am  already  realizing  the  gain  in  the  visits  I  have 
made  since  that  time." 

In  the  middle  of  March,  Miss  Bridges  began  a 
visitation  of  Presbyterian  colleges,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  Board  of  Aid  for  Colleges  and  the  Evan- 


86      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

gelistic  Committee  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  As- 
sociated with  her  was  Miss  Elizabeth  Cole,  state  sec- 
retary for  Illinois,  whose  territory  included  the  col- 
leges of  the  West  as  far  as  the  Pacific  Coast.  Miss 
Bridges  visited  seventeen  colleges  in  the  East  and 
Middle  West.  At  seven  of  these  institutions,  union 
conferences  for  both  young  men  and  young  women 
were  held,  because  to  these  institutions,  for  various 
reasons,  the  young  men  who  were  visiting  the  men 
students  of  the  Presbyterian  colleges  were  not  able 
to  go.  The  purpose  of  these  visits  was  to  arouse  the 
Christian  students  to  the  preparation  for  and  ac- 
complishment of  individual  personal  work.  The  per- 
sonal workers'  classes,  already  organized  in  many 
Young  Men's  and  Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 
ciations, had  made  the  students  intelligent  and  ear- 
nest in  their  eagerness  to  find  the  most  helpful  ways 
of  bringing  others  to  know  Christ.  Her  field  in 
these  colleges  represented  about  twenty-two  hundred 
students,  of  whom  seventy-five  per  cent,  were  Chris- 
tians. A  large  number  of  signed  agreements  to  be- 
come personal  workers  were  sent  in.  In  some  in- 
stitutions the  proportion  was  as  high  as  one  out  of 
three  of  the  Christian  students,  and  in  others  not 
more  than  one  in  eleven.  Miss  Bridges  reported  to 
the  committee : 

"The  colleges  are  standing,  as  Mr.  Mabie  said  of  a  col- 
lege in  the  South,  with  their  faces  toward  the  future.  You 
will  find  the  most  of  them  marked  by  high  ideals  in  schol- 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    87 

arship  and  in  culture,  and  they  are  making  character  out 
of  some  of  the  finest  and  truest  material  we  have  in  our 
grand  old  church.  A  strong  loyalty  to  the  church  and  her 
interests  in  the  home  and  foreign  mission  fields  is  being 
developed.  There  is  a  fire  for  missions  in  some,  and 
here,  too,  I  found  loyalty  to  the  Bible  as  God's  Word,  and 
to  the  deity  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  great  rock  foundation 
stone." 

A  visit  to  a  number  of  New  England  colleges  and 
academies  preceded  the  Silver  Bay  Student  Confer- 
ence. This  conference  commenced,  Miss  Bridges 
felt,  where  the  last  year's  conference  left  off,  espe- 
cially in  respect  to  the  help  the  girls  in  the  secondary- 
school  section  received,  even  from  the  beginning  of 
the  gathering. 

After  a  vacation  month  in  Conklin,  there  came 
attendance  upon  the  Geneva  Conferences,  speaking 
on  student  work  in  the  city  conference,  helping  in 
the  conduct  of  the  general  secretaries'  training  con- 
ference, as  previously  at  Silver  Bay,  and  then  the 
regular  sessions  of  the  student  conference,  at  which 
Miss  Bridges  had  charge  of  the  missionary  depart- 
ment. This  was  the  first  year  that  mission  study 
classes  were  held  in  the  Geneva  Conference,  and  the 
two  hundred  and  sixty-three  members  in  the  three 
classes  sustained  an  interest  very  delightful  to  the 
heart  of  the  leader.  Miss  Bridges  was  also  particu- 
larly gratified  that  ten  different  missionary  boards 
were  represented  by  board  members  or  missionary 
guests,  and  that,  in  the  denominational  missionary 


88      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

meetings,  the  young  women  of  these  particular 
churches  had  a  chance  to  learn  of  home  and  foreign 
missions,  as  carried  on  by  their  own  denominations. 
Some  of  these  board  representatives  were  greatly 
cheered  to  be  able  to  recruit  workers  there  in  the 
conference.  In  this  session,  as  in  all  previous  ones, 
her  formal  meetings  and  public  addresses  were  sim- 
ply the  opportunity  by  which  Miss  Bridges  could 
come  into  relation  with  individual  girls.  With  these 
there  might  follow  long  hours  of  personal  conversa- 
tion which  often  resulted  in  extended  correspondence 
in  future  years,  and  in  which  the  secretary  was  able 
to  advise  not  only  for  an  individual  life,  but  perhaps 
for  all  the  Christian  forces  of  young  women  in  a 
college  or  university. 

There  was  very  little  local  visitation  during  the 
fall  of  1904.  Most  of  the  time  was  given  to  at- 
tendance upon  state  conventions  and  upon  a  con- 
gress arranged  by  friends  of  The  American  Commit- 
tee at  the  time  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposi- 
tion at  St.  Louis. 

At  one  of  the  sessions  of  the  Gulf  States  conven- 
tion, the  theme  was :  "The  Purpose  of  a  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association."  Miss  Stafford, 
the  state  student  secretary,  spoke  upon  the  first  pur- 
pose, "To  win  young  women  to  Christ" ;  Miss 
Bridges  upon  the  second,  "To  build  them  up  in 
01051";  and  Miss  Hays,  of  the  city  department  of 
The  American  Committee,  on  the  third  point,  "To 


Frances  Bridges,  1905 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    89 

send  them  out  for  Christ."     One  who  was  there 
wrote  : 

"I  remember  the  strong  and  deeply  spiritual  address 
Miss  Bridges  gave  and  the  rapt  attention  of  the  girls,  for 
she  had  the  power  of  attracting  them  in  a  wonderful  way. 
Her  own  personality  at  once  gained  their  attention  and 
interest,  and  then  her  intense  earnestness  and  deep  con- 
secration to  the  Master  impressed  them  as  few  young 
women  could.  She  lived  what  she  taught,  and  her  influ- 
ence still  remains  in  its  uplifting  power  in  the  hearts  of 
many  of  the  young  women  of  the  South." 

This  convention  was  followed  by  the  Tennessee 
and  Kentucky  convention  at  Lexington,  the  Vir- 
ginias convention  at  Charles  Town,  West  Virginia, 
and  the  Carolinas  convention  at  Charlotte.  It  was 
a  very  happy  season,  for  she  met  again  friends 
grown  dear  through  their  co-operation  three  and 
four  years  before,  when  these  states  formed  her 
regular  field,  and  she  thanked  God  and  took  cour- 
age when  she  saw  the  increasing  influence  of  this 
Christian  movement  among  the  student  communi- 
ties. She  spent  her  Christmas  this  year  at  Conklin 
with  her  family.  Some  one  sent  her  these  verses,  of 
which  she  was  very  fond : 

"How  did  they  keep  His  birthday  then, 
The  little  fair  Christ,  so  long  ago? 
Oh,  many  there  were  to  be  housed  and  fed, 
And  there  was  no  place  in  the  inn,  they  said; 

So  into  the  manger  the  Christ  must  go, 
To  lodge  with  the  cattle  and  not  with  men. 


90      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

"The  ox  and  the  ass  they  munched  their  hay, 

They  munched  and  they  slumbered,  wondering  not; 
And  out  in  the  midnight,  cold  and  blue, 
The  shepherds  slept,  and  the  sheep  slept,  too, 
Till  the  angels'  song,  and  the  bright  star  ray, 
Guided  the  wise  men  to  the  spot. 

"But  only  the  wise  men  knelt  and  praised, 

And  only  the  shepherds  came  to  see, 
And  the  rest  of  the  world  cared  not  at  all 
For  the  little  Christ  in  the  oxen's  stall ; 
And  we  are  angry  and  amazed 

That  such  a  dull,  hard  thing  should  be. 

"How  do  we  keep  His  birthday  now? 

We  ring  the  bells,  and  we  raise  the  strain; 
We  hang  up  garlands  everywhere, 
And  bid  the  tapers  twinkle  fair, 
And  feast  and  frolic,  and  then  we  go 

Each  to  the  same  old  lives  again. 

"Are  we  so  much  better,  then,  than  they 
Who  failed  the  new-born  Christ  to  see? 

To  them  a  helpless  babe:  to  us 

He  shines  a  Savior  glorious, 

Our  Lord,  our  Friend,  our  All — yet  we 

Are  half-asleep  this  Christmas  day." 

It  had  been  seen  at  the  Geneva  Conference  of  1904 
that  the  delegations  overcrowded  the  capacity  of 
the  camp,  and  a  decision  was  made  to  divide  it  for 
1905.  Students  from  the  eastern  territory  were  ar- 
ranged for  at  Lakeside,  Ohio,  and  from  the  west- 
ern territory  at  Waterloo,  Iowa.    As  Miss  Bridges 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    91 

was  to  be  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Lakeside  Confer- 
ence, her  winter  and  spring  visits  were  chiefly  in 
the  denominational  colleges  in  the  surrounding  re- 
gion— Ohio,  Michigan,  Illinois,  and  elsewhere.  This 
thorough  preliminary  acquaintance  made  the  confer- 
ence a  greater  power  than  it  could  otherwise  possibly 
have  been;  for,  in  spite  of  embarrassments  in  the 
accommodations,  the  spirit  proved  as  true  and 
strong  as  if  there  had  been  no  possible  contrary  cur- 
rents. 

The  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore,  an  Associa- 
tion in  which  she  was  most  deeply  interested  and 
where  she  was  peculiarly  welcome,  found  a  place  in 
her  winter  program,  as  did  several  other  colleges 
and  preparatory  schools  in  the  Pennsylvania  terri- 
tory. She  spoke  of  the  Association  in  Wilson  Col- 
lege, Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  as  a  beautiful 
illustration  of  the  intercollegiate  bond  in  our  Asso- 
ciation work : 

"Last  year  there  was  practically  no  one  there  who  knew 
the  broad  aspects  of  Association  work,  for  the  Association 
is  only  two  years  old.  This  year  a  young  woman  from 
Pomona  College,  a  representative  girl  at  Capitola,  and  a 
young  faculty  member  who  knew  the  Association  at  Mt. 
Holyoke,  and  another  student  who  knew  the  missionary 
side  through  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement,  have  been 
leading  spirits  in  the  work.  Through  a  deeper  prayer-life 
in  the  Association,  through  practical  work  in  a  boys'  club 
outside,  and  through  well-developed  committee  work,  there 
is  great  promise  for  the  future." 


92      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

In  writing  of  the  visits  of  this  season,  Miss 
Bridges  adds : 

"In  one  college,  by  far  the  best  visit  in  point  of  in- 
terest at  the  time  and  lasting  results  of  any  I  have  made, 
these  conditions  were  brought  about  through  the  careful 
preparation  of  the  Christian  students.  There  were  forty 
girls  in  the  volunteer  prayer  circles.  The  deep  interest  of 
the  cabinet  was  the  means  that  God  used  to  pour  out  upon 
the  whole  college  the  presence  of  His  spirit.  Faculty  and 
students  alike  recognized  this  presence  and  spoke  of  it. 
Although  the  girls  were  very  earnest,  and  many  of  them 
profoundly  stirred,  I  was  impressed  again  and  again  with 
the  wholesomeness,  which  evinced  the  real  presence  of 
God.  On  the  last  Thursday  in  chapel,  at  the  suggestion 
of  the  cabinet,  the  president  called  a  meeting  for  prayer 
for  fifteen  minutes  at  noon.  To  me  the  most  beautiful  and 
wonderful  part  of  the  visit  was  that  it  was  very  evidently 
not  the  work  of  any  one  person.  An  unusual  number  of 
Christian  girls  of  the  college  were  actively  and  quietly 
working  to  win  others,  and  the  work  is  still  being  kept 
up." 

And  of  another : 

"I  realize  how  little  I  have  been  responsible  for  this 
work.  The  answer  came  in  each  place  because  of  the 
need,  and  because  there  was  in  each  case  some  one  who 
saw  this  need  clearly  enough  for  the  answer.  In  this  past 
month  I  have  many  times  been  made  glad  at  the  work  of 
God's  hands.  I  thank  The  American  Committee  again 
deeply  for  this  opportunity  of  serving." 

Once,  when  she  had  been  spending  a  couple  of 
days  with  a  summer  conference  friend  at  a  woman's 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    93 

college,  she  thus  expressed  herself  to  a  Smith  class- 
mate : 

"It  was  so  good  to  be  in  touch  with  a  college  so  much 
like  Smith.  They  go  ahead  of  us  in  buildings,  and  they 
surely  have  a  fine  set  of  undergraduates,  but  I'll  still  stick 
by  the  dear  old  white.  Somehow,  seeing  other  colleges 
and  their  good  points  only  makes  you  more  loyal  to  your 
own." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  spring  term,  Miss  Bridges 
was  in  residence  for  a  short  time  at  the  Secretaries, 
Training  Institute  in  Chicago.  This  Institute  had 
been  opened  in  January,  1904,  as  a  permanent  train- 
ing school  for  secretaries,  and,  in  addition  to  the 
resident  secretary  and  the  outside  Bible  teachers  and 
other  lecturers,  there  was  usually  present  one  na- 
tional secretary,  speaking  on  topics  belonging  to  her 
department  and  assisting  in  general  ways.  As  the 
secretary  of  the  training  department  was  absent  at 
the  Capitola  Conference,  Miss  Bridges  was  asked  to 
act  as  head  of  the  Institute  during  her  stay.  She 
said,  afterward: 

"To  my  surprise  and  real  dread,  I  was  asked  to  take 
this  responsibility.  I  speak  of  my  'dread'  because  it  was 
changed  into  such  genuine  joy  and  thanksgiving  to  God 
for  the  wisdom  and  strength  He  gave  for  this  emergency. 
There  were  some  slight  changes  to  be  made  in  the  sched- 
ule, as  outlined,  but  these  were  easily  arranged  through 
the  advice  of  the  chairman  of  the  Institute  committee." 

Miss  Bridges  was  always  very  loyal  to  any  effort 
to  bring  into  Association  work  and  prepare   for 


94      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

larger  service  young  women  from  the  various  col- 
leges which  she  visited;  and  there  are  secretaries  in 
student  and  city  Associations  who  realize  that  their 
attention  might  never  have  been  called  to  any  Chris- 
tian service,  had  it  not  been  that  she  personally,  or 
in  a  public  gathering,  laid  before  them  the  opportu- 
nities in  the  life  of  a  secretary  in  a  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association.  Her  own  joy  in  her  work, 
always  sincere  and  evident,  was  the  best  argument 
she  could  have  used  to  any  one  hesitating  to  make  a 
decision.  She  gained  confidence  to  advise  from  her 
intense  faith  in  other  people  and  her  assurance  that 
they  would  rise  to  the  highest  of  which  they  were 
capable,  and,  one  might  add,  from  her  own  experi- 
mental belief  that  God  would  never  fail  those  whom 
He  had  ordained  for  any  post.  However,  she  was 
most  faithful  in  leading  a  young  woman  to  discern 
if  she  were  not  fitted  for  this  calling.  Extracts  from 
two  letters  show  this  very  plainly : 

"It  seems  best  to  advise  you  not  to  enter  the  work.  We 
believe  that  you  are  not  strong  enough  physically,  and  too 
nervous,  and  that  you  would  not  do  your  best  work  in. the 
Association  secretaryship.  I  believe  truly  God's  will  for 
you  is  that  you  should  stay  at  home  and  live  His  message 
as  you  go  about  each  day.  And  (may  I  speak  very  frank- 
ly?) I  believe  you  need  to  place  the  emphasis  just  now  on 
living  Christ  without  any  organized  agency,  with  the 
prayer  in  your  heart  that  God,  through  your  simple  daily 
living,  will  draw  some  one  else,  and  then  another,  to  Him- 
self, and  perhaps  without  your  knowledge." 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    95 

And  in  the  same  spirit : 

"As  I  remember  you  at  college  (and  you  will  forgive 
me  if  it  is  not  a  fair  estimate  of  the  present),  you  have 
the  energy  and  initiative  that  are  so  necessary  in  that 
work.  But  you  were  not  always  patient  with  others,  nor 
did  you  then  lead  different  classes  of  girls.  You  seemed 
to  be  a  leader  of  a  certain  group.  You  never  signed  the 
card  for  personal  work,  and,  as  I  remember,  the  reason 
was  not  your  objection  to  signing  the  card  but  to  doing 
the  work.  To  bring  others  to  Christ  must  be  the  largest 
part,  the  main  purpose,  in  fact,  of  a  secretary's  life.  Be- 
gin to  study  Christ's  life  as  a  personal  worker  and  you 
can  begin  to  know  whether  you  would  ever  fit  into  the 
secretaryship." 

This  Institute  experience  was  almost  immediately 
followed  by  attendance  at  the  tenth  biennial  conven- 
tion of  The  American  Committee,  held  in  Detroit, 
the  last  general  convention  of  The  American  Com- 
mittee. This  was  a  time  of  gratification  to  all  friends 
of  the  movement.  Four  hundred  and  sixty-six  dele- 
gates from  twenty-nine  states,  from  Canada  and 
from  England,  united  in  a  five  days'  session  in  this 
model  Association  building,  and  could  hardly  credit 
to  what  proportions  this  movement  had  grown.  It 
was  a  jubilee  meeting.  Fifty  years  before,  the  first 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association  had  been  or- 
ganized in  England,  and  the  representative  of  the 
World's  Committee,  Mrs.  E.  W.  Moore,  in  giving 
a  retrospect  of  thanksgiving  for  what  had  been  ac- 
complished, prophesied  a  splendid  outcome  of  the 


96      FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

work  being  done  in  the  United  States.  Miss  Bridges 
helped  in  the  various  program  sessions  and  confer- 
ences, both  in  the  convention  and  the  secretaries'  con- 
ferences following. 

After  visitation  in  New  England,  Miss  Bridges 
went  to  the  Asheville  Conference,  held  this  year  at 
Kenilworth  Inn  at  Biltmore.  She  had  not  been  at 
the  Southern  Conference  since  she  had  resigned 
from  the  position  of  state  secretary  for  the  three 
committees — nearly  a  student  generation  before. 
Girls  whom  she  had  seen  as  they  joined  the  Associ- 
ation in  their  freshman  year  had  grown  in  spiritual 
life  and  executive  efficiency;  older  students  came 
back  as  teachers,  while  state  committee  members  re- 
ported extension  of  the  movement  into  points  which 
a  few  years  ago  had  seemed  permanently  indiffer- 
ent. It  showed  in  many  ways  that  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association  had  "come  into  the 
Kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this."  Southern  girls 
were  offering  themselves  for  training  as  secretaries, 
many  were  returning  home  to  start  religious  or  in- 
dustrial movements  among  the  young  women  in 
their  own  neighborhoods.  There  were  present  in 
the  conference  earnest  Christian  girls,  members  of 
the  cabinets  of  the  South  Carolina  mill  village  As- 
sociations. There  was  growing  up  one  sisterhood, 
and  that  included  personal  relation  to  her  own  Elder 
Brother,  Jesus  Christ. 

The  same  spirit  of  joy  pervaded  the  Silver  Bay 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY         97 

Student  Conference  that  succeeded.  The  following 
prayer,  by  George  Matheson,  which  was  quoted  at 
that  conference,  she  treasured  from  that  time  on : 

"My  heart  needs  Thee,  O  Lord,  my  heart  needs  Thee ! 
No  part  of  my  being  needs  Thee  like  my  heart.  All  else 
within  me  can  be  filled  by  Thy  gifts.  My  hunger  can  be 
satisfied  by  daily  bread.  My  thirst  can  be  allayed  by  earth- 
ly waters.  My  cold  can  be  removed  by  household  fires. 
My  weariness  can  be  relieved  by  outward  rest.  But  no 
outward  thing  can  make  my  heart  pure.  The  calmest  day 
will  not  calm  my  passions.  The  fairest  scene  will  not 
beautify  my  soul.  The  richest  music  will  not  make  har- 
mony within.  The  breezes  can  cleanse  the  air;  but  no 
breeze  can  cleanse  a  spirit.  This  world  has  not  provided 
for  my  heart.  It  has  provided  for  my  eye ;  it  has  provided 
for  my  ear;  it  has  provided  for  my  touch;  it  has  pro- 
vided for  my  taste ;  it  has  provided  for  my  sense  of  beauty 
— but  it  has  not  provided  for  my  heart.  Provide  Thou 
for  my  heart,  O  Lord !  It  is  the  only  unwinged  bird  in 
all  creation:  give  it  wings,  O  Lord!  Earth  has  failed  to 
give  it  wings ;  its  very  power  of  loving  has  often  dragged 
it  in  the  mire.  Be  Thou  the  strength  of  my  heart!  Be 
Thou  its  fortress  in  temptation,  its  shield  in  remorse,  its 
covert  in  the  storm,  its  star  in  the  night,  its  voice  in  the 
solitude!  Guide  it  in  its  gloom;  help  it  in  its  heat;  di- 
rect it  in  its  doubt;  calm  it  in  its  conflict;  fan  it  in  its 
faintness;  prompt  it  in  its  perplexity;  lead  it  through  its 
labyrinths;  raise  it  from  its  ruins!  I  cannot  rule  this 
heart  of  mine;  keep  it  under  the  shadow  of  Thine  own 
wings  lM 

Then  came  vacation  at  her  own  home  and  attend- 
ance at  the  Lakeside  Conference.     It  seemed  as  if 


98      FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

Miss  Bridges  had  entered  upon  a  stronger  and 
mightier  work  than  she  had  ever  before  accom- 
plished. She  felt  this  in  her  own  heart,  and  others 
noticed  it. 

At  the  opening  of  the  Secretaries,  Training  Insti- 
tute, she  spoke  on  the  words,  "And  after  the  fire  a 
still  small  Voice."  It  was  an  appeal  for  the  con- 
trol of  the  Spirit  in  all  the  details  of  daily  living, 
listening  to  God's  voice  within,  and  yielding  prompt 
obedience  to  His  suggestions.  In  this  talk  she  re- 
vealed some  of  her  own  habits  of  prayer  in  relation 
to  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life  that  made  a  profound 
impression  upon  the  young  women  who  expected, 
like  her,  to  give  themselves — all  they  had,  all  they 
wrere,  and  all  they  might  be — for  the  service  of 
Christ,  whom  they  loved.  The  fact  that  her  resigna- 
tion was  in  the  hands  of  The  American  Committee, 
and  that  she  knew  these  visits  were  to  be  the  last  in 
this  particular  capacity,  probably  helped  in  produ- 
cing the  impression  made  this  fall.  It  is  said  that 
she  spoke  like  one  whose  lips  had  been  touched  with 
a  live  coal  from  off  God's  altar.  This  testimony 
came  from  her  public  addresses,  especially  from  the 
vesper  services  that  she  led. 

Besides  assisting  in  other  ways  at  the  Illinois 
convention,  she  conducted  the  Bible  hours,  speaking 
of  God's  great  gifts  to  man — His  Son,  and  His 
Word — explaining  through  the  ceremonies  of  the 
tabernacle  worship  the  steps  of  sacrifice,  cleansing, 


THE  NATIONAL  SECRETARY    99 

and  prayer,  in  our  own  approach  to  God,  through 
Christ.  During  the  student  conference  in  the  Min- 
nesota convention  she  said : 

"This  is  not  my  work,  and  it  is  not  your  work,  but  it 
is  God's  work.  We  may  be  bearing  responsibility  that  does 
not  belong  to  us,  but  to  God.  'In  nothing  be  anxious,  but 
in  everything,  by  prayer  and  supplication  with  thanksgiv- 
ing, let  your  requests  be  made  known  unto  God.'  Let  us 
find  out  from  God  just  what  our  problem  is.  Let  us  meet 
it,  first  of  all,  with  the  consciousness  that  God  is  going  to 
solve  it.  It  may  not  be  this  year.  We  will  not  go  ahead 
and  plan  this  work — if  it  is  His  work — without  first  hon- 
estly asking  His  direction.  If  God  is  at  the  head,  then 
the  honor  does  not  belong  to  us." 

Her  last  appointment  as  secretary  was  attend- 
ance upon  the  Michigan  convention  held  at  Lan- 
sing. The  entertaining  Association,  that  of  the 
Michigan  Agricultural  College,  gave  a  supper  to  the 
delegates  on  Saturday  evening.  This  was  her  birth- 
day, and  the  occasion  was  arranged  as  a  birthday 
party  for  her.  All  the  college  delegates  marched  in, 
passing  her,  and  singing  a  song  composed  for  the 
occasion.  A  cake  with  candles  was  brought  on  in 
state  and  placed  before  her.  A  picture  that  will  al- 
ways remain  in  the  minds  of  the  persons  present  is 
Miss  Bridges  as  she  sat  holding  her  birthday  cake, 
with  the  light  of  the  candles  shining  up  in  her  face, 
making  a  little  speech  to  the  girls  grouped  around 
her.     As  she  thanked  them  at  the  close,  she  said: 


ioo    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

"I  hope  you  will  all  be  just  as  happy  as  I  am  going 
to  be."    One  writes : 

"She  was  dear  that  night,  and  I  always  shall  remember 
how  she  looked.  She  really  did  not  appear  a  great  deal 
upon  the  program,  but  I  don't  know  of  any  secretary 
whose  presence  was  more  felt  at  such  times." 

It  was  appropriate  to  her  own  views  of  life  that 
the  memory  people  had  of  her  in  the  last  convention 
she  attended  in  an  official  capacity  should  not  have 
been  official,  in  the  sense  of  calling  for  the  perform- 
ance of  public  duties,  but  just  a  memory  of  the  so- 
cial hour  that  was  appropriate  to  any  young  woman 
saying  good-bye  to  one  epoch  of  her  life  and  pre- 
paring to  enter  another. 


Presbyterian  Church,  Monroe,  N.  C. 


THE  PASTOR  S  WIFE 

NO  general  principle  was  more  frequently  em- 
phasized in  Miss  Bridges'  teaching  than 
that  God's  eternal  purposes  were  to  be  at- 
tained if  each  Christian  fulfilled  the  minute  portion 
of  duty  assigned  to  him.  That  duty  might  be  work- 
ing or  waiting.  One  might  sow  and  another  reap. 
Happy  surprises,  or  severe  discipline,  might  be  in- 
volved ;  but  if  each  person  were  faithful,  all  else  was 
immaterial — the  place,  or  nature,  or  reward  of 
service  itself.  The  achievement  of  God's  ultimate 
purpose  was  the  glory  of  the  whole. 

God  had  now  changed  her  plans,  and  she  laid 
down  her  work  as  secretary  with  two  convictions  of 
mind.  One,  that  divine  guidance  would  supply  any 
need  caused  by  her  retirement;  the  second,  that  her 
interest  in  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, which  had  meant  more  and  more  to  her  during 
the  past  five  years,  would  continue  to  deepen,  though 
this  official  connection  were  severed.  Although 
deeply  interested  in  the  plans  by  which  the  work  of 
The  American  Committee  was  merged  into  that  of 

IOI 


102    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

the  National  Board  she  never  saw  their  consumma- 
tion. 

In  the  summer  of  1905  announcement  was  made 
of  the  engagement  of  Miss  Bridges  to  the  Rev. 
George  Hannah  Atkinson,  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  at  Monroe,  North  Carolina.  Mr.  Atkinson, 
also,  was  born  in  a  Presbyterian  manse.  His  father, 
the  Rev.  W.  R.  Atkinson,  D.D.,  was  at  that  time 
pastor  of  the  church  at  Charlotte  Court  House,  Vir- 
ginia, and  later  president  of  the  Charlotte  Female 
Institute — now  the  Presbyterian  College  of  Charlotte 
— North  Carolina,  and  of  the  College  for  Women  in 
Columbia,  South  Carolina.  Mr.  George  Atkinson 
was  educated  at  the  South  Carolina  Military  Acad- 
emy of  Charleston,  and  also  at  the  South  Carolina 
College,  Columbia.  After  completing  a  three  years' 
course  in  McCormick  Theological  Seminary,  Chi- 
cago, in  1899,  he  entered  his  first  pastorate  over  the 
Trout  Run  and  Bodine  churches  in  Northumberland 
Presbytery,  in  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania.  Two 
years  afterward  he  was  called  to  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  as  co- 
pastor  with  the  Rev.  J.  R.  Howerton,  D.D.  Here 
his  special  charge  was  the  great  missionary  work  of 
this  church.  In  April,  1903,  he  accepted  the  call  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Monroe,  Union  County, 
North  Carolina — twenty-four  miles  from  Charlotte. 
Mr.  Atkinson's  thorough  interest  in  foreign  missions 
led  him  to  attend  the  fourth  international  conven- 


THE   PASTOR'S   WIFE  103 

tion  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement  at  Toronto 
in  February,  1902.  While  the  guest  of  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Howard  Taylor,  at  the  China  Inland  Mission 
Home,  in  Toronto,  he  met  Miss  Bridges,  who  was 
already  known  to  members  of  his  own  family,  and 
with  whom  he  shared  the  acquaintance  of  many  mu- 
tual friends.  Their  tastes  and  their  views  of  life 
were  very  similar.  That  God  should  give  this  crown- 
ing joy  to  them  did  not  seem  strange,  for  they  knew 
His  love,  and  how  He  worked  out  perfect  plans  for 
those  who  trusted  in  Him. 

There  was,  throughout  the  months  of  her  engage- 
ment, the  development  of  a  spirit  of  joyousness  that 
was  new  to  many  of  her  friends.  Miss  Bridges' 
sense  of  humor  was  never  keen;  it  may  be  because 
humorous  expressions  often  involve  an  extravagance 
of  language  alien  to  one  very  nice  in  her  regard  for 
the  truth,  or  because  sometimes  humor  involves 
laughter  at  people  or  at  situations  which  conflicted 
with  her  sense  of  courtesy.  Happy  and  contented 
she  always  was,  and  she  always  entered  into  the  hap- 
piness of  other  people.  Now,  in  her  own  felicity, 
the  congratulations  of  friends  were  uncounted. 
Many  little  social  functions  and  informal  gatherings 
were  arranged  in  her  honor,  and  at  them  she  ap- 
peared like  a  new  being.  Her  life  was  being  rounded 
out,  and  the  prospect  of  a  settled  manner  of  living, 
with  home  and  local  church  duties,  appealed  to  her 
as  something  instinctively  attractive. 


104    FRANCES   BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

The  wedding  occurred  in  her  father's  church  at 
Conklin,  New  York,  Wednesday,  December  twenty- 
seventh,  1905,  at  four  in  the  afternoon.  Christmas 
greens  decorated  the  building,  which  was  filled  with 
a  company  of  her  friends,  many  of  whom  had  come 
a  long  distance  to  see  the  beautiful  bride  in  this  hour. 
The  service  included  the  reading  of  John's  account 
of  the  marriage  at  Cana  in  Galilee,  and  was  in  every 
way  adapted  to  this  union  of  two  disciples  of  Jesus 
Christ.  She  was  fond  of  Conklin,  and  enjoyed  it 
during  her  vacations.  Her  letters  from  there  con- 
tained many  references  to  the  beauty  of  the  hills, 
with  their  changing  lights,  and  to  the  wide  sweep  of 
the  river.    Once,  in  February,  she  wrote: 

"I  was  home  last  week  for  two  beautiful  days.  Father 
and  I  walked  one  night  to  a  cottage  prayer-meeting  a 
mile  from  home.  It  was  over  the  flats  where  the  wind 
blew  cold,  and  the  snow  was  in  drifts,  but  it  was  worth 
the  effort." 

On  the  last  Sunday  of  her  life  as  Frances  Bridges, 
her  last  Sunday  in  the  old  home,  the  communion  of 
our  Lord's  Supper  was  celebrated  at  the  morning 
service,  with  her  father  and  Mr.  Atkinson  as  offici- 
ating clergymen. 

The  few  days  of  travel  after  the  wedding  in- 
cluded a  visit  to  Baltimore,  where  they  met  their 
many  friends  and  relatives  at  a  reception  given  for 
them,  and  in  the  first  week  of  January  she  entered 


THE   PASTOR'S   WIFE  105 

her  new  home  in  Monroe  with  great  anticipation  of 
what  this  life  was  to  mean.  The  South  was  always 
dear  to  her.  One  of  her  college  classmates  at  Smith 
had  given  her  a  name  in  her  sophomore  year,  "my 
Southern  girl,"  because,  as  her  friend  said:  "Al- 
though she  did  not  come  from  a  Southern  state,  yet 
she  united  in  her  personality  those  characteristics 
which  were  associated  ideally  in  my  mind  with  the 
Southern  girl.  The  beauty  of  her  character,  the 
graciousness  and  sweetness  of  her  manner,  the  love- 
liness of  her  face  and  form,  spelled  a  charm,  the 
quality  that  calls  forth  the  chivalrous  in  both  man 
and  woman.  It  was  not  strange  that  when  her  work 
drew  her  to  the  South  it  was  as  if  she  had  always 
lived  there.  In  1901,  after  her  first  year's  work 
among  Southern  girls,  she  wrote :  T  like  the  South 
as  much  as  I  always  thought  I  would,  and  am  glad 
to  be  called  one  of  its  daughters,  even  by  adoption/ 
Hence,  at  the  time  of  her  marriage,  she  went  unto 
her  own  and  became  in  very  truth  a  daughter  of 
the  South." 

Sometimes  Mrs.  Atkinson  had  feared  that  because 
there  had  been  so  little  sorrow  or  disappointment  in 
her  life  she  would  not  be  able  to  understand  the  suf- 
fering of  other  people,  but  she  said  after  her  mar- 
riage : 

"God's  hand  has  been  in  this.  My  cup  of  joy  is  just  full 
to  running  over.  I  think  that  God  wants  me  to  give  to 
others  just  from  the  very  joy  of  my  life.    I  used  to  wish 


io6    FRANCES   BRIDGES   ATKINSON. 

for  suffering,  that  I  might  mean  more  to  other  people,  but 
I  believe  that  God  intends  me  to  give  my  very  joy." 

When  she  went  to  Monroe  she  affirmed :  "This  is 
my  town,  these  are  my  people,''  and  she  entered  at 
once  into  its  many  manifestations,  only  fearing  that 
her  keen  delight  in  her  housekeeping  and  home-mak- 
ing might  blind  her  to  some  of  the  calls  for  service 
outside  its  four  walls.  She  had  possibly  feared  a 
little  for  the  ease  with  which  she  would  master  the 
housekeeper's  arts,  for  she  repeatedly  acknowledged 
to  her  friends  during  those  brief,  happy  months : 
"Housekeeping  is  great  fun,  and  goes  along  of  it- 
self much  better  than  I  anticipated ;  I  really  dreaded 
it,  but  if  you  knew  Mr.  Atkinson  and  could  see  my 
convenient  little  home,  you  would  not  wonder  that 
it  is  easy  and  delightful." 

Her  home,  like  every  other  part  of  her  life,  be- 
longed to  God — "one  of  His  houses."  She  loved  the 
winter  days  there,  with  the  rain  frozen  on  the  trees. 
She  loved  the  spring  days  there,  when  the  woods 
stood  adorned  with  the  rich,  rare  beauty  of  the  dog- 
wood blossoms.  One  of  the  first  steps  she  took  in 
settling  the  new  manse  was  to  fasten  upon  the  wall 
of  the  dining-room  the  illuminated  text : 

"CHRIST,  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  HOUSE. 
"The  Head  of  this  House  is  Christ  our  Lord, 
At  every  meal  the  welcome  Guest, 
The  Silent  Listener  to  every  word, 
The  constant  though  unseen  Watcher  of  all  our  actions." 


THE   PASTOR'S   WIFE  107 

One  of  two  college  girls  who  were  her  guests  in 
Monroe  said  it  would  have  been  a  revelation  to  the 
young  women  who  knew  Miss  Bridges  only  as  their 
student  secretary  to  see  Mrs.  Atkinson  going  about 
the  house,  doing  the  little  things  that  are  dear  to  a 
woman's  heart.  A  tack-hammer  and  a  paper  of 
tacks  gave  her,  she  said,  almost  as  much  pleasure  as 
some  of  her  cut-glass.  One  day,  as  she  was  dusting 
the  library  table,  she  remarked,  with  a  smile : 

"Doesn't  this  table  look  fine  ?  I  do  like  to  polish, 
for  you  can  see  the  results  so  quickly,  much  more 
than  in  some  other  lines  of  work."  Over  her  desk 
she  hung  the  picture  of  Whistler's  mother.  She  said 
it  brought  to  her  a  sense  of  rest  and  quiet  when  her 
work  was  finished. 

Her  hospitality  was  one  of  her  most  characteristic 
features.  Visiting  clergymen,  members  of  the  con- 
gregation, and  outside  people  to  whom  no  other  door 
was  open,  were  graciously  welcomed,  because  of  the 
love  and  true  hospitality  in  her  heart.  She  used  to 
plan  to  have  in  some  of  the  children  of  the  Sunday- 
school,  or  of  her  friends,  when  something  was  going 
on  that  would  specially  interest  them.  For  instance, 
she  telephoned  for  one  little  girl  to  come  over  the 
day  she  unpacked  the  dishes  forwarded  from  Conk- 
lin,  because  she  knew  that  her  own  child's  tea-set 
was  in  the  barrel,  and  realized  the  delight  it  would 
bring  to  her  little  visitor  to  see  this.     One  of  the 


108    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

young*  guests  said,  after  she  had  been  taken  away 
from  them : 

"It  is  so  lonely  here  in  Monroe  without  Mrs.  Atkinson. 
She  made  us  all  so  happy.  I  hope  I  may  grow  into  the 
woman  she  wanted  me  to  be." 

The  domestic  staff  included  a  little  twelve-year- 
old  colored  boy,  whose  labors  showed  devotion,  even 
if  some  other  elements  of  usefulness  were  lacking. 
Mrs.  Atkinson  taught  the  child  every  day  a  portion 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  so  that  he  might  have  a  part 
in  family  prayers.  One  day  a  guest,  in  leaving  the 
house,  said  to  him  :  "Willie,  don't  you  want  to  come 
up  home  with  me?"  He  seemed  interested  in  the 
invitation  at  first,  but  soon  said :  "I  don't  know  'bout 
goin'  with  you  all.  Laws,  you  see,  if  she  that  does 
the  cookin'  should  leave,  I'd  have  to  be  here  to  do 
the  cookin'  for  Miss  Frances.  I  couldn't  leave  her 
alone." 

She  always  tried  to  give  a  bit  of  herself  to  her 
guests,  whether  a  chance  caller  or  a  friend  staying 
under  her  roof.  One  night,  companionably  sitting 
by  the  fire,  she  picked  up  a  copy  of  Ugo  Bassi's  "The 
Sermon  in  the  Hospital"  and  read  it  through  aloud, 
commenting  on  her  favorite  portions.  These  were 
the  lines : 

"Measure  thy  life  by  loss  instead  of  gain, 

Not  by  the  wine  drunk,  but  the  wine  poured  forth, 

For  love's  strength  standeth  in  love's  sacrifice, 

And  whoso  suffers  most  hath  most  to  give." 
*  *  *  *         * 


THE  PASTOR'S  WIFE  109 

"But  in  obedience  and  humility; 
Waiting  on  God's  hand,  not  forestalling  it. 
Seek  not  to  snatch  presumptuously  the  palm 
By  self-election ;  poison  not  thy  wine 
With  bitter  herbs,  if  He  has  made  it  sweet; 
Nor  rob  God's  treasuries  because  the  key 
Is  easy  to  be  turned  by  mortal  hands. 
The  gifts  of  birth,  death,  genius,  suffering, 
Are  all  for  His  hand  only  to  bestow." 

The  Sunday-school  claimed  her  attention,  with  a 
class  of  fifteen  young  women,  and  even  during  her 
brief  residence,  from  January  to  June,  she  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  one  of  these  young  women 
publicly  confess  Christ  and  unite  with  the  church. 
The  girls'  club,  The  Miriams,  and  the  boys'  club, 
The  Covenanters,  were  other  centers  of  interest. 
When  any  of  her  plans  for  children's  work  did  not 
carry  as  she  had  expected,  she  took  the  disappoint- 
ment as  a  bit  of  discipline.  She  said  she  had  often 
prayed  for  humility  and  patience,  and  these  were 
some  of  the  ways  in  which  God  was  giving  her  the 
answer  to  her  prayer.  She  was  president  of  the  La- 
dies' Foreign  Missionary  Society,  as  well  as  deeply 
interested  in  the  work  of  the  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety and  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society  of  the  church. 

Each  Wednesday  a  little  prayer  group  met  at  the 
"manse"  to  pray  over  the  interests  of  Christ's  king- 
dom, and  before  the  meetings  in  March,  conducted 
by  the  Rev.  Alfred  H.  Moment,  D.D.,  of  Raleigh, 
Mrs.  Atkinson  organized  a  number  of  prayer  circles. 


no    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

As  one  who  was  in  one  of  these  has  said :  "It  was, 
in  every  sense,  a  school  of  prayer ;  the  blessing  came 
not  only  in  the  results  of  the  meetings,  but  in  the 
revelation  to  the  women  who  took  part  in  these 
circles.,, 

Her  interest  was  not  confined  to  her  own  church, 
but  she  gathered  together  a  number  of  ladies,  from 
all  churches,  who  invited  Miss  May  N.  Blodgett  of 
Detroit  to  hold  a  series  of  Bible  readings  in  Monroe 
in  the  spring.  These  meetings  were  held  with  the 
deepest  interest  from  the  20th  of  May  to  the  4th 
of  June,  and  as  a  result  a  permanent  Bible  class  of 
forty  members  or  more  was  organized,  to  begin 
regular  weekly  meetings  in  the  fall.  The  ladies  felt 
that  no  one  but  Mrs.  Atkinson  could  profitably  teach 
the  class,  and  so,  with  deep  reluctance,  she  accepted 
that  as  one  of  her  obligations  for  the  coming  year. 

With  Mrs.  Darwin  James  of  Brooklyn,  president 
of  the  Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  a  long-known  friend  of 
the  Bridges  family,  Frances  had  often  talked  about 
her  heartfelt  longing  for  the  Christian  education  of 
Southern  girls,  and  how,  some  time,  a  broad  work 
could  be  brought  about  for  them.  What  the  North- 
ern Presbyterian  church  was  doing  in  its  schools  at 
Asheville  was  always  of  deepest  interest  to  her,  and 
she  had  been  at  the  institutions,  both  as  secretary 
and  for  personal  visits,  many  times.  The  Normal 
and  Industrial  College  at  Albemarle,  Stanley  Coun- 


THE   PASTOR'S   WIFE  in 

ty,  was  also  in  the  circle  of  her  immediate  care.  Mr. 
Atkinson  and  she  visited  the  school  together  in 
April,  and  she  spoke  to  the  girls  in  regard  to  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association  movement 
and  the  ways  in  which  girls  could  develop  a  higher 
Christian  life.  The  next  year  another  friend  was 
visiting  the  school  and  found  there  the  beginnings  of 
a  little  organization.  The  girls  said :  "Mr.  Atkinson 
brought  his  wife  here,  and  she  told  us  about  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  and  we  want  an  Association  of  our 
own.    Oh,  she  was  so  lovely !" 

En  route  to  Albemarle  they  traveled  with  a  little 
orphan  girl  from  the  Episcopal  Orphanage  in  Char- 
lotte, of  whom  Mrs.  Atkinson  wrote : 

"Mr.  Atkinson  and  I  met  the  superintendent  with  her 
at  the  station.  She  was  about  ten  years  old  and  had  the 
sweetest  expression  in  her  face  when  it  brightened.  She 
was  going  to  Danville,  and  I  had  to  leave  her  at  Salisbury, 
and  when  I  kissed  her  good-bye,  she  put  her  arms  around 
me  in  a  quick,  impulsive  way,  and  gave  me  a  convulsive 
little  hug.  I  hope  she  is  going  where  people  will  love  her, 
and  I  believe  they  will,  for  the  superintendent  was  such  a 
kind  man  he  would  have  investigated  the  home." 

"She  doeth  little  kindnesses 

That  most  leave  undone  or  despise, 

For  naught  that  sets  one  heart  at  ease 

And  bringeth  happiness  or  peace, 
Is  low  esteemed  in  her  eyes." 

When  it  was  understood  that  Miss  Bridges  would 
settle  in  the  Carolinas  after  her  marriage,  she  was 


ii2     FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

most  heartily  invited  to  a  place  on  the  State  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian 
Association  and  asked  at  the  very  first  to  be  its 
chairman.  This  she  felt  unable  to  do,  but,  after  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Charlotte  Association,  which 
she  addressed  with  great  power,  the  ladies  who  had 
the  work  in  charge  felt  that  they  could  undertake  it 
successfully  only  with  one  of  her  experience  and 
ability  as  chairman.  She  finally  consented,  and  in 
March  took  up  these  duties.  The  first  of  April  Mrs. 
Atkinson  presided  over  a  state  council  at  headquar- 
ters. On  that  day  she  enjoyed  talking  with  Miss 
Stephenson,  from  the  Home  Industrial  School  at 
Asheville,  who  had  been  for  many  years  the  treas- 
urer of  the  state  committee,  of  her  own  early  experi- 
ences when  traveling  among  the  Southern  Associa- 
tions. Other  dear  friends  were  upon  the  committee, 
which  made  this  gathering  very  personal  and  attrac- 
tive. She  and  the  state  secretary,  Miss  Inez  Kinney, 
had  arranged  the  program  for  the  day,  including, 
besides  the  more  technical  topics,  "The  Power  of  the 
Asheville  Conference  to  Transform  Lives"  and  "The 
Relation  of  Prayer  to  Work."  Mrs.  Atkinson  her- 
self spoke  that  day  on  "The  Relation  of  the  State 
Committee  to  the  National  and  World's  Committees 
and  to  the  Local  Association."  She  explained  how 
the  state  committee  represents  the  local  Associations, 
though  it  does  not  in  any  way  control  them.  Its 
work  is :  First,  to  study  the  conditions  of  the  whole 


THE   PASTOR'S   WIFE  113 

territory,  in  order  to  learn  where  help  is  needed ;  and 
to  stand  in  closest  sympathy  with  existing  Associa- 
tions through  correspondence  and  visits  of  the  trav- 
eling secretaries  and  of  any  of  the  members  of  the 
state  committee  who  can  go  out  and  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  various  local  branches ;  second,  to 
assist  in  forming  Associations  in  colleges,  cities,  and 
mill  villages,  whenever  the  students  or  the  people  of 
the  town  desire  such  an  organization;  third,  to  su- 
pervise the  work  of  the  various  local  Associations, 
never  sending  the  secretary  unless  an  invitation  has 
been  received,  though  sometimes  an  indication  may 
be  given  that  if  such  an  invitation  were  extended  it 
would  probably  be  accepted. 

The  local  Associations  elect  the  national  commit- 
tee members  at  the  biennial  conventions,  they  make 
voluntary  pledges  to  that  movement  at  the  time  of 
the  summer  conferences,  and  are  urged  by  the  state 
committee  to  be  loyal  to  the  national  movement. 

To  show  the  necessity  for  activity  in  the  student 
world,  she  cited  instances  of  young  women  not 
brought  into  vital  relations  with  Christ  in  college, 
and  their  influence  later  on :  one,  a  girl  not  a  Chris- 
tian, who  married  a  Christian  young  man  with  the 
understanding  that  he  should  take  no  part  in  the 
work  of  his  church;  another  whose  husband  and 
young  son  joined  the  church  on  confession  of  faith, 
but  received  no  help  in  the  home  toward  growth  in 
Christian  life;  another,  a  young  woman  so  narrow- 


ii4    FRANCES   BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

minded  in  her  sectarian  interpretations  that,  because 
her  own  denomination  was  not  represented  in  the 
town,  she  would  identify  herself  with  no  church  and 
offered  no  service  to  Christ. 

It  was  Mrs.  Atkinson's  dear  hope  that  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association  movement  in  the 
Carolinas  could  be  a  work  of  Carolina  women.  It 
had  long  been  dependent  on  Northern  help,  and  since 
she  had  become  a  Southern  woman  herself  she 
hoped  to  make  it  a  truly  independent  committee. 

One  of  the  greatest  joys  of  her  married  life  was 
attendance  upon  the  fifth  Student  Volunteer  conven- 
tion, held  in  Nashville,  Tennessee,  February  28  to 
March  4,  1906.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Atkinson  chaperoned 
one  Pullman  car  of  students,  containing  the  delega- 
tions from  eight  Carolina  colleges,  and  on  their  way 
they  spent  some  hours  in  Atlanta  at  the  home  of 
Mrs.  A.  McD.  Wilson,  the  chairman  of  the  Gulf 
States  Committee,  whose  hospitality  Miss  Bridges 
in  her  traveling  days  had  enjoyed  again  and  again. 

Mr.  Atkinson  had  co-operated  with  the  Young 
People's  Missionary  movement  since  its  inception, 
and  knew  many  of  the  general  missionary  leaders, 
as  well  as  the  religious  workers  of  the  South.  His 
wife  had  visited  the  various  schools  and  colleges  in 
Nashville  a  number  of  times  in  her  regular  work  as 
secretary  and  had  attended  both  state  and  national 
conventions  there.  The  city  was  full  of  her  friends. 
At  the  opening  session  of  the  convention  Mr.  and 


'    - 

0   I 

THE   PASTOR'S   WIFE  115 

Mrs.  Atkinson  sat  in  the  Carolinas'  section  of  the 
balcony,  recognizing  and  greeting  acquaintances  in 
the  interval  before  the  program  began,  but  after  this 
they  accepted  seats  on  the  great  platform,  near  which 
they  held  a  perpetual  reception  before  and  after  every 
session.  There  were  hundreds  of  young  women  from 
the  various  colleges  who  had  known  of  Miss 
Bridges'  marriage  and  who  wished  to  have  a  per- 
sonal word  with  her ;  there  were  hundreds  of  people 
to  whom  Mr.  Atkinson  wished  to  introduce  his 
bride,  and  the  whole  week  of  the  convention  was  a 
time  of  the  greatest  personal  delight,  as  well  as  a  time 
of  absorbing  interest  in  the  convention  itself.  Her 
sister  Margaret  was  with  the  Smith  College  delega- 
tion.   The  sisters  never  met  each  other  again. 

This  is  the  last  time  that  many  of  her  friends  saw 
Frances  Bridges  Atkinson,  the  only  time  that  most 
of  them  saw  her  after  her  marriage.  It  is  a  memory 
that  they  cherish  of  her,  to  whom  her  friends  were 
an  inexpressibly  close  part  of  her  life.  "I  feel,  some- 
times," she  once  said,  "as  if  I  did  not  deserve  the 
friendships  I  have,  because  I  do  not  think  as  often 
of  my  friends  as  I  should" ;  yet  her  devotion  to  her 
friends  was  unusual.  In  no  pressure  of  business,  of 
home  cares,  in  no  absorbing  personal  issues,  in  no 
time  of  exaltation  or  of  shrinking  towards  God  in 
emergency,  had  she  ever  forgotten  the  friends  whom 
she  loved  and  whom  she  served :  "Her  love  was 
measured  by  the  wine  poured  forth." 


VI 


LONG   GOOD-BYES   ARE    HARD 

WHEN  the  first  plans  were  made  for  the 
Southern  Conference  of  1906  Mrs.  At- 
kinson was  instantly  thought  of  as  one 
of  the  speakers  whose  presence  through  the  whole 
conference  would  be  of  inestimable  value. 

This  Asheville  Conference  had  always  made  a 
strong  appeal  to  her.  Possibly,  it  was  because  it  was 
the  first  conference  to  which  she  had  gone  as  a  sec- 
retary; possibly  because  she  was  familiar  with  the 
colleges  from  which  the  delegations  came,  and  be- 
cause she  had  been  rejoiced  to  see  the  city  Associa- 
tions spring  up  in  the  cities  through  which  she  had 
traveled  some  years  before;  possibly  because  she 
knew  the  gratifying  results  of  the  previous  confer- 
ences as  they  had  been  revealed  by  the  later  lives  of 
the  young  women  in  attendance,  and  possibly  be- 
cause of  her  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  state  committees  represented  at  that  con- 
ference, with  whom  she  had  worked  closely  as  a 
state  secretary  and  into  whose  conventions  and  local 
Associations  she  had  been  repeatedly  welcomed. 

116 


LONG   GOOD-BYES   ARE   HARD     117 

She  found,  too,  everything  there  that  could  appeal 
to  one  who  loved  beauty  and  calm  of  outlook.  The 
situation  of  Kenilworth  Inn,  where  the  conference  of 
1906  was  entertained,  commands  a  magnificent  pros- 
pect of  mountains  and  hills.  There  are  blazing  glo- 
ries of  sunset  and  wonderful  spectacles  of  cloud- 
effects.  There  is  the  cool  nearness  of  the  shady 
woods  and  winding  mountain  roads  to  invite  to  long 
walks  and  picturesque  drives. 

Mrs.  Atkinson  had  looked  forward  to  the  confer- 
ence and  planned  most  carefully,  as  was  her  wont, 
for  the  address  she  was  to  make  on  the  opening  eve- 
ning. It  was  she  who  had  chosen  the  conference 
motto:  John  10:10  and  17:3.  "I  am  come  that  they 
may  have  life,  and  that  they  may  have  it  more  abun- 
dantly." "And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  should 
know  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  him  whom  thou 
didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ." 

She  left  home  Thursday  morning,  June  7,  with 
Miss  Theresa  Wilbur,  her  successor  in  the  student 
work  of  The  American  Committee.  They  spent  part 
of  the  day  with  friends  in  Charlotte.  The  ride  and 
the  luncheon  and  the  pleasant  social  intercourse 
were  spoken  of  most  happily  in  a  letter  written  that 
night.  It  was  Mrs.  Atkinson's  plan  to  return  to 
Monroe  after  the  conference,  and  then  to  come  back 
with  Mr.  Atkinson  for  the  Young  People's  Mission- 
ary Movement  Conference,  June  29th  to  July  9th. 
After  July  14th  they  were  to  go  to  Conklin,  New 


n8    FRANCES   BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

York,  to  spend  the  remainder  of  the  summer  witti 
her  family. 

She  was  most  glad  to  find  at  the  Inn  the  chairman 
of  The  American  Committee,  Mrs.  J.  S.  Griffith,  and 
the  leaders  and  managers  of  the  conference,  all  of 
whom  had  been  her  colleagues  until  a  few  months 
past.  Friday  morning  and  afternoon  were  spent 
quietly  resting  and  preparing  her  address  for  the 
evening.  Shortly  before  going  down  to  speak,  she 
asked  the  secretaries  to  come  together  for  a  little 
time  of  prayer.    She  wrote  then  to  Mr.  Atkinson : 

"It  is  Friday  evening,  and  I  am  just  about  to  start  for 
the  meeting.  I  know  you  have  been  praying  for  me  and 
I  am  sure  of  God's  blessing  upon  the  message,  but  I  long 
not  to  disappoint  Him  at  one  little  point  by  trusting  in 
myself,  or  the  outline,  or  in  any  way  hindering  Him." 

The  meeting  was  the  first  assembling  of  the  con- 
ference delegates — young  women  from  the  colleges 
and  cities  of  the  lower  Atlantic  States,  the  Gulf 
States,  and  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  women  on  city 
boards  and  college  faculties. 

As  she  arose  to  speak,  her  voice  was  strong  and 
clear.  The  young  women  who  had  only  heard  of 
her,  as  well  as  her  own  friends,  were  caught  by  her 
beauty  and  by  her  conviction  that  she  had  experi- 
enced the  very  life  that  she  was  portraying  to  them. 
The  theme,  one  of  her  favorite  subjects,  was : 


LONG   GOOD-BYES   ARE   HARD     119 

THE  CHOICE  OF  THE  BEST. 
(Luke  10:38-42.) 
"Now  as  they  went  on  their  way,  he  entered  into  a  cer- 
tain village ;  and  a  certain  woman  named  Martha  received 
him  into  her  house.  And  she  had  a  sister  called  Mary, 
who  also  sat  at  the  Lord's  feet,  and  heard  his  word.  But 
Martha  was  cumbered  about  much  serving ;  and  she  came 
up  to  him,  and  said:  'Lord,  dost  thou  not  care  that  my 
sister  did  leave  me  to  serve  alone?  Bid  her  therefore  that 
she  help  me/  But  the  Lord  answered  and  said  unto  her: 
'Martha,  Martha,  thou  art  anxious  and  troubled  about 
many  things:  But  one  thing  is  needful:  for  Mary  hath 
chosen  the  good  part,  which  shall  not  be  taken  away  from 
her/  " 

"First,  let  us  rid  our  minds  of  the  conception  that 
Jesus  praised  the  life  of  meditation  over  the  life  of  activ- 
ity. We  have  an  intimation  that  Mary  had  been  helping 
Martha  with  the  serving,  for  Martha  said :  'My  sister  hath 
left  me  to  serve  alone.' 

"Picture  to  your  minds  an  extra  guest  in  the  family — 
the  preparation  for  such  an  one,  and  realize  how  Martha 
felt,  that  Mary  had  left  her  to  serve  alone.  Mary  had 
chosen  the  part  of  truest  courtesy,  that  of  going  to  enjoy 
her  guest. 

"Both  of  these  women  were  what  we  would  call  Chris- 
tian women.  God  loved  them  both.  This  is  not  a  contrast 
between  Christian  and  non-Christian,  but  rather  that  one 
chose  the  highest  type  of  Christian  living.  It  was  not  the 
choice  of  an  ascetic  life,  away  from  the  world;  not  a  nar- 
row, unhappy  life,  but  a  joyous  life.  'These  things  have 
I  spoken  unto  you,  that  my  joy  may  be  in  you  and  that 
your  joy  may  be  made  full.'  John  15:11.  The  best  life 
in  Jesus  Christ  is  the  most  radiantly  joyful  life. 


120    FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

"This  was  also  a  true  life.  Martha  illustrates  the  class 
of  people  who  say  that  because  they  honestly  think  a  thing 
is  right,  it  is  right.  Martha  was  so  sure  that  she  was 
right,  she  had  not  begun  to  know  the  truer  part  of  service. 
Do  not  be  perfectly  sure  that  what  you  think  is  right,  un- 
less you  are  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  learning  of 
Him  through  His  word. 

"It  was  a  real  life,  too,  not  that  superficial,  uncertain 
life.  Jesus  was  teaching  deep  things.  He  said:  'Mary 
hath  chosen  that  good  part  which  shall  not  be  taken  away 
from  her/ 

"Religion  must  not  be,  and  is  not,  a  thing  set  off  by 
itself.  Spiritualize  the  every-day  things  of  life.  Does  He 
not  tell  us  this  in  these  words :  'Whether,  therefore,  ye  eat 
or  drink  or  whatsoever  ye-  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God.' 

"Everything  we  do  in  life  should  be  for  some  definite 
aim.  True  education  consists  in:  i.  Mental  discipline; 
2.  Discernment;  3.  Helping  other  people.  A  superficial 
education  must  react  on  the  religious  life.  The  teaching 
of  Jesus  concerned  everything  in  every-day  life. 

"This  choice  of  the  best  is  a  choice  of  the  life  of  com- 
munion. It  is  being  lived  by  some  of  the  busiest  people, 
who  take  advantage  of  every  opportunity  for  a  few  mo- 
ments' chat  with  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  who  faithfully  keep 
every  day  the  Morning  Watch.  To  pray  means,  as  Mary 
appreciated  that  day,  to  come  into  the  presence  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Some  think  this  is  vague  and  mystical,  but  it  is 
not  if,  as  you  go  to  prayer,  you  say  thoughtfully  and 
meaningly:  'I  have  now  come  into  the  presence  of  the 
Lord  Jesus;  I  have  come  to  hear,  to  have  Him  speak  to 
me/  He  has  said  in  His  word :  'Draw  nigh  unto  God  and 
He  will  draw  nigh  unto  thee.'  Then  say :  'I  am  drawing 
near  unto  God;  He  must  be  drawing  near  to  me.'  You 
may  not  feel  this.     The  feeling  is  not  essential.     That 


LONG   GOOD-BYES   ARE   HARD     121 

manifestation  will  come  when  God  wills.  His  presence 
is  just  as  real.  All  you  need  to  do  is  to  reach  out  your 
hand  through  faith." 

When  she  had  come  apparently  almost  to  the  close 
of  her  address  she  became  faint,  hesitated,  and  then 
took  her  seat,  saying:  "I  am  all  right,  but  I  must 
have  been  more  tired  than  I  thought."  After  a  mo- 
ment or  two,  she  was  assisted  to  an  adjoining  ver- 
anda by  the  nurse  and  the  conference  physician  (her 
own  medical  attendant  from  Charlotte).  Dr.  Lin- 
coln Hulley,  one  of  the  conference  Bible  teachers 
sitting  on  the  platform,  instantly  rose  and  continued 
the  thread  of  the  discourse,  and  then  brought  the 
meeting  to  a  close.  Mrs.  Atkinson  did  not  get  bet- 
ter, and  was  carried  upstairs  to  her  room.  For  a 
time  she  seemed  much  more  comfortable,  but  about 
midnight  the  doctor,  having  failed  to  get  a  satisfac- 
tory response  from  the  treatment,  sent  for  a  consult- 
ing physician  who,  when  he  arrived,  said  everything 
had  been  done  that  could  be  done.  Several  hours 
passed,  in  which  she  seemed  to  suffer  hardly  any 
pain.  She  was  conscious,  though  she  said  little — 
only  inquiring  whether  her  friends  had  been  sent 
for,  and  speaking  courteously  to  those  who  were  at- 
tending upon  her.  Shortly  after  daylight  the  physi- 
cian asked  if  she  would  like  to  have  Mrs.  Griffith 
pray  with  her.  She  nodded  assent.  Very  soon  after 
this  she  calmly  and  sweetly  breathed  her  last. 

Without  good-bye  to  her  friends?    With  none  of 


122    FRANCES    BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

her  family  about  her?  Yes,  and  that  was  the  sad- 
dest thought  in  many  hearts  at  the  moment  they 
heard  she  had  left  them.  Once  she  had  written  a 
hostess  in  whose  hospitality  she  had  taken  pleasure : 

"I  don't  think  I  said  good-bye  to  your  daughter.  But 
she  will  understand.  And  perhaps  it  was  just  as  well,  for 
long  good-byes  are  hard." 

So  she,  who  never  doubted  for  one  instant  that 
God's  ways  are  perfect,  went  to  Him  when  He 
called,  and  as  He  appointed.  There  was  no  sadness 
of  farewell  when  she  put  out  to  sea.  What  she  had 
said  to  a  dearly  loved  academy  girl  who  was  mourn- 
ing for  her  mother,  she  would  have  been  willing  her 
own  friends  should  remember  when  they  were 
mourning  for  her : 

"In  any  case,  this  bereavement  will  work  out  for  good 
to  those  who  love  Him.  Perhaps  I  would  better  explain 
that  conditional  clause.  God  certainly  does  not  send  all 
the  sickness  in  the  world,  but  just  as  Jesus  Christ  was  al- 
ways especially  near  the  sick  and  needy,  the  Spirit  of  God, 
I  believe,  comes  especially  to  the  sick  and  suffering  with 
the  divine  power  to  heal,  or  the  tender  comfort  to  lead 
through  the  shadow  of  the  Valley  of  Death,  when  men 
will  let  Him.  And  if  God  did  not  purpose  this,  and  it 
came  through  carelessness  or  ignorance,  still  His  loving 
heart  is  planning  that  all  good  to  those  who  love  Him 
shall  come  from  it,  whatever  has  happened  or  will  hap- 
pen." 


LONG   GOOD-BYES  ARE  HARD     123 

On  this  Saturday  morning,  after  breakfast,  the 
delegates  were  asked  to  come  together  in  the  audi- 
ence room,  and  there,  where  they  had  last  met,  and 
where  they  had  heard  her  words  of  the  possibility  of 
intimate  communion  with  the  beloved  Lord,  they 
heard  that  she  had  entered  into  visible  communion 
with  Him,  and  that  the  better  part  which  she  had 
chosen  was  now  hers  without  limitation.  Later  in 
the  day  Mr.  Atkinson  arrived,  accompanied  by 
friends. 

The  burial  was  in  Baltimore,  in  beautiful  Green 
Mount  Cemetery.  Here,  among  the  trees  and  the 
flowers  upon  the  grassy  inclines,  where  many  mem- 
bers of  the  family  had  previously  been  laid  to  rest, 
sorrowing  friends  and  relatives  left  all  that  was 
mortal  of  one  who  had  been  to  them  the  dearest 
and  most  precious  creature  in  life. 

Dr.  Howerton,  of  Charlotte,  a  devoted  friend  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Atkinson,  conducted  the  funeral  serv- 
ice. Dr.  John  Timothy  Stone,  pastor  of  the  Brown 
Memorial  Church  of  Baltimore,  who  had  known 
Miss  Bridges  in  her  visits  to  the  Woman's  College 
of  Baltimore  and  in  her  conference  work,  spoke  of 
the  life  not  that  she  had  lived,  but  that  she  was 
living : 

"The  life  seems  closed,  but  every  heart  is  speaking  of 
her  now  in  the  conscious  language  of  love.  We  need  not 
say  simply  her  life  was  beautiful,  her  life  is  beautiful, 
and  the  Master  whom  she  loved  and  represented  lives  and 


124    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

will  live  more  really  in  all  of  us  because  we  saw  Him  in 
her." 

He  closed  with  the  little  poem  of  Maltbie  D.  Bab- 
cock: 

EMANCIPATION. 

"Why  be  afraid  of  Death  as  though  your  life  were  breath? 
Death  but  anoints  your  eyes  with  clay.     Oh,  glad  sur- 
prise ! 

"Why  should  you  be  forlorn  ?    Death  only  husks  the  corn. 
Why  should  you  fear  to  meet  the  thresher  of  the  wheat  ? 

"Is  sleep  a  thing  to  dread?    Yet,  sleeping,  you  are  dead 
Till  you  awake  and  rise,  here,  or  beyond  the  skies. 

"Why  should  it  be  a  wrench  to  leave  your  wooden  bench  ? 
Why  not  with  happy  shout  run  home  when  school  is 
out? 

"The  dear  ones  left  behind  !    Oh,  foolish  one  and  blind  ! 
A  day — and  you  will  meet;  a  night — and  you  will  greet! 

"This  is  the  death  of  Death,  to  breathe  away  a  breath 
And  know  the  end  of  strife,  and  taste  the  deathless  life, 

"And  joy  without  a  fear,  and  smile  without  a  tear, 
And  work,  nor  care,  nor  rest,  and  find  the  last  the  best." 

One  of  the  first  effects  of  her  beautiful  translation 
was  that  upon  the  conference  itself.  The  testimonies 
at  the  closing  meeting  showed  that  for  some  their 


LONG   GOOD-BYES   ARE   HARD      125 

previous  fear  of  death  had  been  removed,  as  they 
thought  of  her,  radiant  when  she  had  spoken  to 
them,  and  now  still  more  radiant  in  the  presence  of 
her  Lord.     Some  one  said  later : 

"Though  not  thirty  years  of  age  and  still  a  bride,  her 
beautiful  life  seems  complete  to  me,  for  I  cannot  conceive 
of  a  more  perfect  rounding  out  of  it  than  has  been 
achieved,  and,  as  I  see  her  addressing  the  members  of  the 
Association  when  her  spirit  took  its  flight,  she  appears  to 
me  like  a  brave  runner  who,  having  finished  the  course, 
stands  before  the  judge  for  the  crown.  Crowned  she  now 
is  most  certainly,  for  she  has  fought  a  good  fight,  she  has 
finished  the  course,  she  has  kept  the  faith." 

On  the  last  Sunday  a  memorial  service  was  held, 
opened  by  Scripture  reading  and  prayer  by  Mrs. 
Griffith.  Miss  Cratty,  the  leader  of  the  conference, 
said:  "I  remember  one  thing  in  particular  which 
she  said  at  the  conference  last  year — 'Choose,  not  to 
choose  again.'  This  which  she  herself  exhorted  us 
to  do  she  has  done."  The  secretaries  and  other  of- 
ficers of  the  Southern  state  committees  spoke :  Miss 
Anna  Casler,  who  had  known  her  as  a  fellow  stu- 
dent in  Smith  College;  Miss  Helen  Coale  of  the  Vir- 
ginias, who  had  first  known  her  when  she  herself 
was  a  disappointed  girl  unable  to  go  to  college.  Miss 
Bridges  had  said  to  her:  "I  believe  you  will  go  to 
college  yet,  and  I  will  pray  that  you  may  go."  Miss 
Emily  Huntington,  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  also 
was  of  Miss  Bridges'  college.    They  had  been  at  a 


126    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

summer  conference  together  in  a  great  delegation, 
but  Miss  Bridges,  though  one  of  the  busiest  and 
most  conspicuous  members,  had  found  out  this 
young  obscure  girl  in  order  to  be  of  service  to  her. 
Miss  Kinney,  who  had  known  her  in  the  relation  of 
state  secretary  to  state  chairman  and  who  had  been 
in  her  home  in  Monroe,  spoke  of  this  that  she  had 
said: 

"I  don't  believe  God  would  have  given  me  this  happy 
home  if  He  had  not  meant  me  to  share  it  with  some  one 
else." 

Once,  after  a  discouraging  report  had  been  re- 
ceived, she  wrote  : 

"We  never  know  just  what  God  does  with  our  work, 
and  I  have  come  to  believe  that  it  is  a  sin  to  doubt  that 
God  does  use  us  if  our  lives  are  truly  consecrated  to 
Him." 

Miss  Simms  and  Miss  Taylor,  her  former  col- 
leagues on  the  national  staff,  spoke  of  her  prayer- 
life  and  her  sympathy.  "Her  life  was  not  unusual; 
it  was  simple  and  normal.  It  can  be  summed  up  in 
one  sentence — she  was  a  Spirit-filled  woman." 

Memorial  services  were  also  held  at  the  Silver 
Bay  Student  Conference,  in  which  she  had  been  an 
active  worker  several  preceding  summers,  and  in  the 
church  at  Monroe,  at  the  time  the  delegates  from 
that  city  reported  the  Asheville  Conference. 

The  formal  resolutions  and  the  hundreds  of  per- 


LONG   GOOD-BYES   ARE   HARD     127 

sonal  letters  that  followed  the  announcement  of  her 
death  all  united  in  testimony  to  her  unselfishness, 
her  devotion,  and  her  humility. 

This  interest  of  friends  has  been  continued  in  va- 
rious memorial  undertakings — a  scholarship  at  the 
Training  Institute  for  Secretaries  in  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association,  another  in  the 
Home  Industrial  School  at  Asheville,  in  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association's  memorial  rooms  in 
Asheville  and  Charlotte,  and  in  the  Normal  and  In- 
dustrial College  of  Albemarle,  North  Carolina;  a 
memorial  chapel  in  the  Orphanage  for  Girls,  main- 
tained by  the  home  mission  committee  of  the  Ashe- 
ville Presbytery  in  the  town  of  Balfour,  twenty  miles 
from  Asheville;  and  in  Kunsan,  Korea,  the  Frances 
Bridges  Atkinson  Hospital.  The  head  nurse  of  this 
hospital,  in  which  nearly  nine  thousand  patients 
were  treated  in  1907,  was  a  member  of  Mr.  Atkin- 
son's church  in  Monroe  when  she  volunteered  for 
the  mission-field.  It  would  be  Frances  Bridges  At- 
kinson's wish  that  the  girls  and  women  educated  or 
helped  through  these  means  should  think  not  of  her 
when  they  hear  her  name,  but  of  Him  whom  she 
lifted  up  that  He  might  draw  all  unto  Himself. 

"Death  could  not  change  her,  who  was  all  of  life — 
Its  power,  and  beauty,  and  immortal  love; 
Death  was  a  thing  apart  from  her,  whose  spirit, 
A  white  and  burning  flame,  unquenched  has  leapt 
To  meet  and  blend  with  the  eternal  Light. 


128    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

"Sick  hearts,  be  strong;  and  eyes  yet  blind  with  grief, 
Look  to  the  heavens  above  you,  where  'tis  writ 
That  Light  and  Life  and  Love,  these  three,  are  one 
Divine,  imperishable  element. 
So  all  our  essences  are  one,  and  she 
Whose  life  was  purest  light  and  love,  is  now, 
Though  glorified,  immutably  the  same 
As  when  she  moved  among  us.    Lord,  we  thank  Thee.' 


VII 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE 

WHENEVER  two  friends  of  Frances 
Bridges  Atkinson  begin  speaking  of 
her,  they  are  sure  to  say :  "I  think  the 
secret  of  her  influence  was  this  or  that."  "It  must 
be  because  of  her  prayerfulness,  or  her  humility,  or 
her  love  for  the  Word  of  God,  that  she  had  so  great 
a  power  with  girls." 

There  are  many  who  believe  that  the  source  of 
her  power  was  her  constant,  absolutely  unwavering 
faith  in  God  as  an  answerer  of  prayer.  She  kept  a 
long  prayer  list,  changing  it  from  time  to  time  as 
the  petitions  were  answered  or  as  others  were  added. 
These  were  some  of  the  requests  that  she  had  been 
making  the  last  days  of  her  life  for  different  friends 
who  had  asked  her  prayers : 

"That  she  may  be  led  to  do  God's  will" ; 
"That  she  may  have  more  loyalty  to  the  Bible"; 
"For  her  work  as  a  faculty  member" ; 
"For  a  deeper  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness"; 
"That  she  may  know  God's  disposition  in  regard  to  this 
work"; 

129 


130    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

"That  she  may  learn  the  power  of  intercessory  prayer 
and  how  to  carry  Christ  to  others" ; 

"That  she  may  rest  in  the  Lord"; 

"That  she  may  live  just  for  God's  praise" ; 

"That  the  study  of  Thessalonians  may  be  an  especial 
blessing  at  this  particular  time" ; 

"That  she  may  grow  naturally" ; 

"That  the  whole  Cabinet,  as  well  as  the  President,  may 
never  cause  the  Spirit  of  God  to  cease  His  power  in  their 
Association" ; 

"That  she  may  be  kept  true  to  her  decision,  and  that 
God  may  use  her  life  accordingly" ; 

"That  the  peace  of  God  may  be  in  her  heart." 

One  of  her  friends  asked  her  one  day  how  she 
knew  the  wisest  way  to  bring  a  girl  to  a  definite 
decision  for  Christ,  and  the  answer  furnishes  the 
keynote  of  her  entire  life.     She  said : 

"I  never  attempt  to  help  a  girl  but  I  ask  the  Lord  to 
speak  through  me,  and  even  between  sentences  I  keep 
praying  for  the  right  thought  and  the  right  words  to  ex- 
press it." 

"Prayer  as  a  Working  Force"  was  a  favorite  ex- 
pression, and  many  times  was  the  burden  of  an  ad- 
dress to  college  women : 

"God's  part  in  our  work — our  part,  not  'God  helping 
me/  Christ's  promise  about  prayer — 'Ask  whatsoever  ye 
will/ 

"General  ignoring  of  this  and  the  sinfulness  of  the  fail- 
ure." 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  131 

"The  conditions  on  which  receiving  is  based : 
"(1)  Abiding— John  15.    Keeping  His  Commandments, 
1  John. 

"(a)  Forgiving — Mark  11:25. 
"(b)  Unobtrusive  prayer. 
"Note.— 'Use  not  vain  repetitions/    'Prayer  is  not  over- 
coming God's  reluctance,  but  laying  hold  of  His  willing- 
ness.' 

"(2)  'In  my  name,'  as  if  Christ  were  asking  something 

according  to  my  will. 

"Three  ways  of  looking  at  this : 

"(a)   Not  knowing  God's  will  in  the  matter,  pray 
with  a  willingness  to  submit  to  it. 

"(b)  When  His  word  tells  you  His  will. 
"The  extension  of  His  kingdom  in  one's  college  or 
in  the  whole  world. 

"Your  own  purity  and  growth. 
"Unity  of  purpose  in  the  cabinet.  That  they  all  may 
be  one. 

"For  Bible  classes. 

"(c)  When  the  Spirit  of  God  puts  into  your  heart 
the  conviction  of  His  will. 

"Starting  a  prayer  circle  for  spiritual  awakening. 
"A  new  building. 

"Sending  a  delegation  to  conference  or  convention. 
"Pray.    Use  this  as  your  greatest  working  force.  Keep 
on  praying." 

One  of  the  Moravian  brethren  insisted  to  John 
Wesley :  "The  religion  of  Jesus  is  not  a  solitary  re- 
ligion. You  must  bring  some  one  with  you  if  you 
expect  to  enter  Heaven."  Frances  Bridges  did  not 
pray  alone,  she  was  a  member  of  several  prayer  cir- 


132    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

cles  for  different  purposes,  and  many,  many  less  de- 
veloped Christians  she  really  taught  to  pray  as 
Christ  taught  His  disciples.  Her  schedule  was  sent 
each  month  to  friends,  to  secure  their  intercession 
for  the  colleges  and  conventions  to  which  she  was 
to  go.  She  showed  young  women  that  she  loved  and 
trusted  them  by  urging  them  to  undertake  spiritual 
responsibility  and  then  leading  them  step  by  step. 
This  is  shown  in  her  correspondence: 

"...  In  praying  for  this  friend,  ask  to  be  shown 
for  what  to  pray,  just  where  the  difficulty  lies.  It  may  lie 
in  her  not  taking  what  God  is  holding  out  to  her.  It  may  be 
that  that  secret  reason  has  something — much — to  do  with 
it,  although  she  does  not  realize  either  now.  I  am  doing 
this,  too;  get  her  to  do  the  same.  The  greatest  work  you 
do  is  when  you  pray.  May  the  truth  of  that  become  more 
and  more  a  part  of  your  life  and  mine !     .    .    .    " 

Like  Brother  Lawrence,  she  practiced  the  presence 
of  Christ  continually  and  felt  His  help  in  everything 
she  undertook.  When  some  one  asked  her  one  day 
about  keeping  the  Morning  Watch,  she  said : 

"Of  course,  the  time  to  talk  with  God  is  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  day.  You  tune  the  piano  before  you  play  on 
it,  instead  of  waiting  until  after  the  music  has  been 
spoiled." 

Nothing  else  was  ever  so  important  as  this  en- 
gagement with  her  Lord.  The  only  occasions  when 
her  exquisite  consideration  for  others  might  seem  to 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  133 

fail  was  when  the  hour  of  breakfast,  or  of  some 
early  appointment,  conflicted  with  the  time  set  apart 
for  this  daily  worship.  That  her  very  presence 
brought  benediction,  as  one  said  who  worked  with 
her  long  and  closely,  was  the  natural  outcome  of 
this  sitting  still  in  God's  presence  before  going  into 
any  other  company. 

Her  unselfishness  was  another  striking  trait,  and 
this  was  revealed  both  by  her  humility  and  courtesy. 
She  was  a  perfect  guest.  One  in  whose  home  she 
visited  frequently  once  said : 

"We  never  had  in  our  home  a  guest  so  delightful  and 
so  easy  to  entertain.  Her  supreme  thoughtfulness  was 
manifest  here  as  everywhere.  She  was  so  appreciative,  so 
happy,  so  loving,  and  so  perfectly  frank  about  her  prefer- 
ences when  asked,  that  she  could  not  fail  to  be  a  constant 
delight." 

Her  thoughtfulness  was  marked,  especially  in  the 
little  things  so  often  overlooked  by  those  who  have 
much  less  than  she  to  claim  their  attention.  A  vis- 
itor to  Thomas  Carlyle's  house  in  London  remarked 
that  in  his  correspondence  there  exhibited  she  was 
most  struck  by  the  notes  he  sent  with  his  birthday- 
gifts  to  his  wife.  He  might,  she  commented,  have 
sent  gifts  without  infringing  on  the  general  reputa- 
tion he  had  established  for  himself,  but  that  he 
accompanied  them  with  the  intimate  and  affec- 
tionate  jottings  there  present  was  a  revelation  of 


134    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

an  entirely  different  person  from  what  she  had 
thought  the  Sage  of  Chelsea  to  be.  But  Frances 
Bridges'  affectionate  spirit  in  offering  and  her  ap- 
preciation in  receiving  a  gift  were  exactly  consistent 
with  her  whole  life.  You  knew,  from  reading  her 
note  of  acknowledgment,  that  the  impression  was 
perfectly  distinct.  A  bundle  of  letters  to  a  friend  in 
a  neighboring  suburb,  who  often  brought  flowers  for 
her  to  the  national  office,  shows  that  she  never  for- 
got. The  acknowledgment  was  not  of  "flowers," 
but  of  "dog-tooth  violets"  or  "pansies"  or  "asters." 
This  courtesy  and  graciousness  made  a  strong  ap- 
peal to  elderly  people.  A  secretary  at  the  Carolinas 
convention  in  1906  said  that  during  the  convention 
days  an  old  lady  called  her,  as  she  was  passing 
through  the  audience,  and  said:  "Tell  me,  where 
is  that  sweet  young  woman  who  used  to  be  the  sec- 
retary— Miss  Bridges?"  I  replied:  "She  is  in 
Heaven."  The  old  lady's  eyes  filled  with  tears. 
"Tell  me  about  it,"  she  said,  but  as  it  was  time  for 
the  next  meeting  to  begin  I  only  said :  "Over  on  the 
publication  table  you  will  find  a  paper — The  Evan- 
gel— with  an  account  of  her  life."  The  next  morn- 
ing the  lady  was  again  at  the  convention,  and  as  I 
passed  her  she  spoke  up  quickly,  "I  read  it,"  and 
gave  my  hand  an  earnest  pressure.  Again  her  eyes 
filled  with  tears.  "I  don't  know  who  she  was  at 
all,"  the  secretary  added,  "but  I  know  that  some 
time  Frances  Bridges  had  touched  her  with  such  a 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  135 

touch  that  years  had  failed  to  make  her  forget  the 
beauty  of  the  life." 

The  very  statement  of  her  life-motto — "He  must 
increase,  but  I  must  decrease" — shows  the  spirit  in 
which  she  undertook  all  her  service,  and  the  very 
thought  of  her  unselfishness,  of  not  expecting  many 
things  for  herself,  of  gratitude  for  such  results  and 
blessings  as  came,  gave  her  a  poise  and  a  restfulness 
as  unusual  as  it  was  beautiful.  This  quiet  restful- 
ness always  pervaded  her  life,  even  amid  the  strain 
and  weariness  of  her  traveling.  She  always  ap- 
peared at  peace  with  God  and  with  herself.  It  was 
infinitely  more  to  her  to  keep  her  poise  and  be  quiet 
than  to  catch  a  train,  if  that  meant  being  unduly 
hurried. 

A  co-worker,  who  was  first  attracted  to  her  be- 
cause of  her  personality  and  simplicity  of  expression 
and  bearing,  was  greatly  impressed,  as  the  years 
deepened  their  acquaintance,  by  the  fact  of  her  hu- 
mility. She  once  said,  in  regard  to  the  national 
field: 

"I  am  ready  to  lay  this  work  down  to-morrow,  if  some 
one  else  will  do  it  better." 

This  humility  was  one  reason  why  the  ministry  of 
intercession  was  more  sought  by  her  than  public 
service,  although  she  took  her  place  in  this  with 
others. 


136    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

It  is  difficult  to  give  a  name  to  one  of  her  strong- 
est  characteristics,  a  certain  simplicity,  the  child 
spirit  in  ordinary  matters,  as  well  as  simplicity  to- 
ward Christ,  which  manifested  her  religious  life. 
Says  a  friend : 

"Rare  and  beautiful  in  all  its  attributes  as  her  life  was, 
to  me  the  most  noticeable  quality,  and  the  most  helpful, 
was  the  childlike  simplicity  of  her  mind  and  heart  in  its 
attitude  toward  God.  I  have  never  seen  Christ's  bidding 
that  we  be  as  little  children  so  completely  exemplified  in 
the  life  of  any  mature  Christian.  To  pray  with  her  was 
to  be  lifted  in  a  rare  way  into  the  very  presence  of  the 
Father,  where  she,  as  a  loving  child  sure  of  His  love, 
talked  with  Him  as  if  face  to  face,  in  the  simplest,  most 
straightforward  way,  of  the  immediate  need  of  her  life. 
I  shall  never  forget  my  first  time  of  prayer  with  her  at 
Geneva,  where  we  plead  with  God  for  a  mutual  friend. 
God  was  made  real  and  tender  in  a  new  way  that  has 
made  my  own  prayer-life  far  more  intimate  and  simple. 
And  every  time  that  my  life  touched  hers  thereafter  I 
bore  away  something  helpful.  My  memory  of  her  is  a 
live  and  blessed  one,  bright  with  the  sunshine  of  God's 
love,  and  tender  with  recollections  of  the  frank  and  happy 
outgivings  of  her  friendship." 

This  called  forth  the  very  best  in  other  people. 
The  purity  of  her  life  and  the  Christ-like  tenderness 
made  it  simply  impossible  to  be  mean  or  petty  in 
her  presence.  You  thought  your  purest  thoughts 
and  acted  your  noblest  when  with  her. 

With  all  this  simplicity  of  mind,  there  was  a  firm- 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  137 

ness  about  making  decisions.  This  was  true  even 
when  such  a  decision  might  call  forth  criticism,  since 
people  might  think  she  had  taken  a  step  that  as- 
sumed a  higher  plane  of  living  than  they  had  yet 
been  led  to  experience  or  desire;  but  the  very  fact 
that  those  about  her  knew  her  humility  made  it  im- 
possible to  credit  any  such  assumption  on  her  part. 
Her  trust  in  God  was  boundless.  "God  is  here, 
and  girls  are  naturally  turning  to  Him"  was  her  ex- 
planation of  an  earnest  spiritual  awakening  in  which 
she  took  part.  Her  high  expectation  that  what  was 
worked  for  would  come  gave  a  steadiness  to  any 
course  upon  which  she  had  settled  through  prayer. 

"I  am  sure,  from  an  experience  I  am  constantly  going 
through,  that  God  expects  us  to  trust  Him  to  bring  about 
the  result  of  our  life,  while,  as  a  friend  of  mine  put  it  in 
a  letter,  'we  want  fruit  in  blossom-time/  almost  all  of  us 
who  are  really  in  earnest." 

The  term  "saintly"  can  be  used  of  few  with  any 
degree  of  appropriateness;  but  it  can  be  applied  ab- 
solutely to  Frances  Bridges  Atkinson,  because  her 
life  was  quiet  and  joyous  and  free  from  all  strain  of 
morbidness,  and  illustrated  the  normal  Christian  ex- 
perience, which  by  its  very  rarity  seems  to  savor  of 
the  other  world,  that  land  of  far  distances  where 
now  she  sees  the  King  in  His  beauty.  Still,  this 
saintliness  was  not  due  to  absence  of  lower  possibili- 
ties.   She  acknowledges  that  she  had  always  had  in 


138    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

her  life  one  great  and  overwhelming  temptation.  It 
was  the  temptation  of  an  ambition  which  longed  to 
be  first,  which  led  her  to  want  to  do  and  to  be  bet- 
ter than  another  could  do  or  be.  She  said  that  if 
she  were  not  a  Christian  she  would  have  been  over- 
powered with  this  insatiate  ambition,  but  the  power 
of  God  had  been  helping  her  to  conquer. 

Another  most  marked  characteristic  was  her  ca- 
pacity for  taking  pains.  She  was  a  hard  worker.  A 
state  secretary  tells  that,  after  she  had  taken  part  in 
a  number  of  the  services  of  Sunday  at  a  convention, 
she  had  talked  on  her  homeward  way  with  a  young 
woman  who  was  trying  hard  to  come  to  some  im- 
portant decision,  and  then,  though  it  was  late  at 
night,  she  realized  that  this  new  state  secretary  had 
been  waiting  for  advice  and  counsel,  and  she  felt 
that  she  must  give  her  that  before  she  slept.  In  all 
her  correspondence  and  conversation  there  was  a 
nice  faithfulness  to  any  work  given  her  to  do,  no 
matter  what  its  requirements.  Every  task,  especially 
her  letter-writing,  had  her  full  attention. 

One  young  woman  writes  her : 

"Why  is  it  fair  for  the  Lord  to  allow  people  to  be 
saved  because  their  friends  pray  for  them,  when  there  are 
so  many  who  have  no  friends  to  pray  for  them  and  must 
perhaps  go  unsaved  for  that  reason  ?" 

Miss  Bridges  took  time  to  explain  the  teaching  of 
the  Scriptures  on  this,  the  question  of  bare  salvation 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  139 

and  true  Christian  development,  Christ's  teaching  in 
regard  to  prayer  and  the  responsibility  of  the  indi- 
vidual, as  well,  to  come  willingly  to  God,  and  ends 
by  saying: 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  also  that  you  have  given 
up  examining  yourself  and  have  determined  just  to  go 
on  doing  as  nearly  as  you  can  what  you  think  Christ 
would  wish.  To  have  God  examine  us  is  one  thing,  to  ex- 
amine ourselves  is  another.  We  should  always  stand 
open  to  the  first,  but  the  second  results  only  in  morbid- 
ness." 

Another  student  writes  inquiring  about  Christian 
development  and  how  she  can  obtain  the  right  mo- 
tives in  her  Christian  life.     Miss  Bridges  answers : 

"It  is  the  simple  obedience  to  Christ's  commands,  be- 
cause He  commands  them,  that  brings  us  into  touch  with 
Him  and  then  gives  us  a  sense  of  joy  and  love  for  His 
work.  You  might  do  all  the  things  that  you  have  heard 
other  people  say  you  ought  to  do,  in  order  to  develop  the 
Christian  life,  and  yet  not  feel  any  more  joy,  nor  have 
any  more  sense  of  the  reality  of  Jesus  Christ;  but  if  you 
will  start  in  and  say:  'I  will  obey  because  Christ  com- 
mands it,  I  want  Christ  in  my  life,  I  want  to  know  Him 
better,  I  want  Him  to  actuate  my  life  with  motives/  and 
so  seek  to  please  Him  rather  than  to  do  right,  the  love 
and  pleasure  and  interest  in  His  work  will  grow." 

To  another  young  woman,  who  was  concerned 
because  she  was  not  able  at  once  to  enter  a  definite 
form  of  Christian  work,  she  said : 


140     FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

"If  you  can  work  at  home  in  your  own  church  for  a 
year  or  two,  and  then  teach,  doing  lines  of  Christian  work 
in  the  midst  of  your  teaching,  God  will  just  prepare  you 
through  the  openings  that  He  gives  in  these  intervening 
years  and  you  will  not  be  so  disappointed  as  if  you  tried 
to  rush  into  the  work  before  you  are  sufficiently  mature." 

One  of  her  closest  friends  speaks  of  her  pains- 
taking labor  in  the  preparation  of  addresses.  These 
usually  grew  out  of  her  own  personal  Bible  study 
and  the  truth  which  God's  Word  was  revealing  to 
her  at  the  time  she  was  preparing  to  speak.  She 
prayed  much  during  this  construction.  There  were 
careful  notes  made  and  kept,  and  yet  when  the  hour 
of  speaking  arrived  the  words  came  rather  from  the 
heart  and  its  meditations  than  from  the  head  and  its 
reasons.  Her  deliberate  aim  was  permanency  and 
fruitfulness  rather  than  amount  accomplished.  She 
was  willing  to  spend  hours  with  one  individual,  if 
the  result  would  mean  the  conversion  of  the  young 
woman,  or  the  surrender  of  her  life. 

An  absolute  love  of  the  Scriptures  permeated  ev- 
erything she  said  or  did.  Her  papers  are  full  of 
slips  with  Scripture  quotations  written  out  in  detail, 
which  she  evidently  wished  to  study  in  connection 
with  some  subject.  Many  of  the  outlines  of  her  ad- 
dresses are  simply  arrangements  of  logically  con- 
nected Scripture  passages  : 

"He  saved  us  through  the  washing  of  regeneration  and 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  which  He  poured  out  upon 
us  richly  through  Jesus  Christ,  our  Savior." 


,THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  141 

"Having  cleansed  it  by  the  washing  of  water  by  His 
word." 

"Be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  mind  that 
ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good  and  acceptable  and  per- 
fect will  of  God." 

"But  we  all,  with  unveiled  faces  beholding  as  in  a  mir- 
ror the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  transformed  unto  the  same 
image  from  glory  to  glory  even  as  from  the  Lord  the 
Spirit." 

One  of  the  secretaries  who  frequently  traveled 
with  her  said:  "She  fed  upon  God's  Word.  She 
would  lose  herself  in  Bible  study  as  we  traveled. 
After  an  interruption,  such  as  changing  cars,  she 
immediately  returned  with  zest  to  her  study." 

That  study  was  often  a  sort  of  communion  with 
God.  It  was  not  so  much  preparation  for  a  dis- 
tinct talk  as  for  her  personal  work.  She  was  study- 
ing that  she  might  know  how  to  meet  the  objections 
made  by  girls  who  were  unwilling  to  give  themselves 
to  Christ.  She  used  this  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures in  giving  advice  to  young  women  personally. 
A  student  secretary,  who  met  her  first  at  a  summer 
conference,  had  been  talking  with  her  about  making 
a  decision  for  the  foreign  field.  Miss  Bridges  gave 
her  a  verse  which  spoke  to  the  girl's  heart  in  such 
a  way  that  she  felt  her  faith  was  anchored  and  that 
her  decision  would  stand. 

"That  verse,  the  sixteenth  of  the  forty-second  chapter 
of  Isaiah,"  the  girl  wrote  later,  "has  been  a  help  many, 


142    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

many  times  since,  and  when  I  knew  that  she  could  come 
to  the  state  convention  at  our  college  town  I  was  simply 
delighted  that  the  other  girls  might  have  the  same  power 
come  into  their  lives.  She  made  such  an  impression  that 
the  dean  of  our  college  kept  asking  me,  as  president  of 
our  Association,  if  it  could  not  be  arranged  to  have  Miss 
Bridges  visit  the  college." 

And  what  she  gave  to  individuals  she  gave  also 
as  advice  for  an  Association.  She  writes  to  a  uni- 
versity, where  funds  for  a  building  were  to  be 
raised : 

"I  have  been  reading  something  oh  the  money  problem 
that  deepened  the  conviction  of  which  I  spoke  to  you  the 
other  day  and  that  makes  me  suggest  to  you  that  as  soon 
as  you  can,  you  make  a  study  of  the  old  tabernacle  and  the 
way  in  which  the  money  was  raised  there,  and  also  the 
same  subject  during  the  apostolic  days.  Here  are  just  a 
few  references:  2  Corinthians  8:1-9;  2  Corinthians 
9:6-14;  1  Corinthians  4:2;  Philippians  4:19." 

Her  view  about  Bible  study  was  expressed  in  the 
answer  to  a  letter : 

"  'Am  I  not  on  the  right  track  when  I  expect  to  obtain 
spiritual  food  from  my  Bible  study?  Have  I  not  a  right 
to  expect  spiritual  growth  by  my  study?'  Yes,  if  you  are 
expecting  it  to  come  from  Christ — the  loving  Christ — 
rather  than  from  the  book.  It  is  possible  to  seek  light 
rather  than  life.  But  in  Him  was  life  and  the  life  was 
the  light  of  men.  The  Bible  is  just  the  series  of  God's 
letters  to  us — to  use  a  figure  you  will  surely  understand. 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  143 

Now,  if  you  mean  your  second  question  as  I  have  under- 
stood it,  I  do  not  think  it  is  true.  Is  not  the  only  way 
one  can  come  into  closer  and  more  vital  touch  with  Jesus 
Christ  that  of  communion,  and  is  not  that  communion 
obtained  only  by  prayer  and  Bible  study?  Do  you  re- 
member the  saying,  'Communion  without  service  is  a 
dream — service  without  communion,  ashes'?  God  is  re- 
vealed to  us  through  our  service  for  Him,  as  well  as 
through  our  communion  with  Him.  By  service  I  mean 
helping  those  outside  your  own  family  circle,  and,  if  pos- 
sible, someone  in  darkness  or  sorrow,  and  while  I  want 
you  to  keep  right  along  with  your  Bible  study  and  prayer, 
I  am  going  to  tell  you  not  to  try  each  thing  I  suggest  as 
a  new  remedy,  but  just  do  them  as  a  part  of  God's  com- 
mands, and  trust  Him  to  give  the  blessing  of  revelation 
when  it  seems  best.    It  will  probably  take  you  unawares." 

We  are  told  that,  in  the  prayer-meetings  of  the 
early  church,  the  petitions  were  not  made  that  the 
events  of  this  day  or  to-morrow  might  be  taken  care 
of,  or  for  the  minor  blessings  which  are  incident  to 
the  Christian  life,  but  in  those  meetings  the  believers 
prayed  that  God  would  lay  a  burden  for  souls  upon 
each  of  them.  This  burden  for  souls  was  laid  upon 
Frances  Bridges  until  her  life  was  aflame  with  her 
devotion  to  personal  work.  It  made  no  difference 
who  it  was  that  was  in  need.  At  one  of  the  summer 
conferences  a  young  woman  of  very  limited  oppor- 
tunities came  to  her  knowledge,  and  Miss  Bridges 
gave  as  much  time  and  thought,  and  worked  as  hard 
to  bring  this  girl  into  obedience  to  Christ,  as  though 
she  were  one  of  the  leaders  of  a  great  college  com- 


144    FRANCES   BRIDGES   ATKINSON 

munity,  with  every  possibility  of  intellectual  and  so- 
cial influence.  She  saw  there  an  immortal  soul,  and, 
like  Christ,  she  was  not  too  busy  or  too  tired,  in  the 
midst  of  summer  conference  days,  to  pause  and  help 
one  to  find  her  prophet,  her  Messiah,  and  her  per- 
sonal Savior. 

During  many  visits  to  colleges,  Miss  Bridges 
found  that  the  hindrance  in  the  way  of  the  advance- 
ment of  Christ's  claim  in  these  institutions  was  the 
fact  that  the  nominally  Christian  girls,  and  even 
the  officers  of  the  Association,  had  so  little  vital 
touch  with  Christ.  In  one  woman's  college,  where 
the  visit  had  been  full  of  discouragement,  a  strong 
young  faculty  member  said  to  her:  "I  am  afraid, 
Miss  Bridges,  that  this  visit  is  not  very  satisfac- 
tory to  you.  What  do  you  think  is  the  greatest  dif- 
ficulty here?"  Miss  Bridges  looked  at  her  thought- 
fully and  sadly,  and  responded:  "You  are."  Her 
personal  work  was  truly  individual,  in  that  she  left 
each  young  woman  to  work  out  her  own  problem. 
She  did  not  advocate  wholesale  measures.  Because 
a  conference  had  been  the  very  gate  of  Heaven  to  a 
student  who  came  with  a  prepared  mind,  she  would 
not  encourage  that  student  to  believe  that  a  similar 
conference  would  effect  similar  developments  for  a 
student  of  different  temperament  or  degree  of  spir- 
itual concern. 

And  others  learned  of  her,  as  she  prayed  that  God 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  145 

would  help  them  to  see  some  girls   who   needed 
Christ. 

"...  I  think  Drummond's  'Natural  Law  in  the 
Spiritual  World'  will  help  you  to  understand  what  is 
lacking  in  such  a  girl  as  you  describe.  I  think  you  help 
some  people  to  feel  their  need  of  Christ  by  realizing  your- 
self that  the  true  Christian  life  is  something  different  from 
other  lives.  As  Christians  we  do  not  realize  that  enough, 
and  so  people  think  that  moral  and  attractive  virtues  are 
themselves  the  Christian  life.  But  that  chapter  on  'Ye 
must  be  born  again'  will  explain  it.  The  next  chapter  on 
'Growth,'  too,  is  very  good. 

"I  believe  you  did  the  right  thing  when  you  asked  your 
friend  if  she  were  willing  to  be  made  willing.  That  was 
practically  what  you  did  in  asking  her  to  pray  to  want. 
The  difficulty  is  that  she  is  spiritually  asleep,  and  these 
yearnings  are  but  the  efforts  to  awaken  her.  She  needs 
to  be  startled  into  waking.  One  way  to  do  that  is  just 
through  a  simple  suggestion — don't  be  shocked  or  hurt 
(seemingly)  at  any  position  she  takes.  From  her  point 
of  view  she  could  quite  honestly  say  that  she  believed 
there  would  be  plenty  of  time.  And,  don't  you  know,  as 
far  as  time  to  get  into  heaven — that  is,  to  live  here  in 
years  of  preparation — she  probably  has  what  seems  like 
a  good  deal.  But  the  trouble  there  is  that  she  cannot  come 
to  Christ  just  when  she  wants.  That  sad  thing  is  true. 
The  Spirit  of  Christ  does  not  strive  with  us  forever. 
Don't  let  her  think  so  much  of  the  future  results.  But 
show  her  the  verses  in  John  3  and  4  and  6,  to  show  that 
life  comes  only  through  Christ  (it  is  a  present-tense  mat- 
ter), that  without  Him  ('Whosoever  obeyeth  not — be- 
lieveth  not— the  Son  shall  not  see  life,  but  the  wrath  of 
God  abideth  on  him') — there  is  no  life; 


146    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

"May  God  speak  through  even  the  tones  of  your  voice 
and  lead  you  to  say  this  or  something  else,  whatever  is 
His  will,  to  her." 

The  recent  biography  of  an  English  clergyman 
declares  that  the  world  admires  men  for  what  they 
give  it,  but  rarely  for  themselves.  It  was  not  so 
with  Frances  Bridges  Atkinson.  Her  whole  teach- 
ing was  that  men's  work  should  be  an  expression  of 
what  they  are.  "How  to  Live  as  a  Christian"  was 
a  favorite  theme  for  conference  addresses.  Her 
commonplace-book  was  filled  with  such  extracts  as 
these,  stamped  with  her  approval : 

"In  the  preacher  three  things  must  preach:  heart, 
mouth,  and  life.  The  life  must  illustrate  what  the  mouth 
speaks,  and  the  mouth  must  speak  what  the  heart  feels." 

"The  most  excellent  way  Brother  Lawrence  had  found 
of  going  to  God  was  that  of  doing  our  common  business 
without  any  view  of  pleasing  men,  and  purely  for  the  love 
of  God." 

"Spirituality  is  best  manifested  on  the  ground,  not  in 
the  air.  Rapturous  day-dreams,  flights  of  heavenly  fancy, 
longings  to  see  the  invisible,  are  less  expensive  and  less 
expressive  than  the  plain  doing  of  duty.  To  have  bread 
excite  thankfulness,  and  a  drink  of  water  send  the  heart 
to  God,  is  better  than  sighs  for  the  unattainable.  To  plough 
a  straight  furrow  on  Monday,  or  dust  a  room  well  on 
Tuesday,  or  kiss  a  bumped  forehead  on  Wednesday,  is 
worth  more  than  the  most  ecstatic  thrill  under  Sunday 
eloquence.  Spirituality  is  seeing  God  in  common  things, 
and  showing  God  in  common  tasks." 


THE  SECRET  OF  HER  INFLUENCE  147 

"Are  you  living  for  yourself — self-centered?  Then  you 
are  in  the  Kingdom  of  Selfishness.  Are  you  living,  on  the 
whole,  to  make  other  people  happy?  Then  you  are  living 
in  what  I  call  the  Kingdom  of  Good-Nature.  Are  you  liv- 
ing to  make  the  world  better?  Then  you  are  living  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Philanthropy.  Are  you  seeking  to  do  Christ's 
work  in  Christ's  way?  Then  you  are  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ." 

She  writes  to  a  friend  who  had  been  visiting  a 
university  where  the  Association  members  had  been 
most  enthusiastic,  while  the  guest  had  been  disap- 
pointed in  the  meeting : 

"I  know  your  coming  meant  a  great  deal  in  spiritual 
fellowship  to  those  girls.  You  know  it  means  a  great  deal 
to  a  college  girl  to  see  a  woman  of  your  personality  stand 
for  the  things  of  Christ,  as  you  stand  for  them.  I  am 
more  and  more  convinced  that  people  are  far  more  im- 
pressed and  helped  by  what  a  person  is  than  by  what  a 
person  says,  and  they  see  that  even  in  a  short  visit." 

In  a  far-away  school  in  China  a  young  mission- 
ary, who  had  become  barely  familiar  enough  with 
the  Chinese  language  to  be  at  her  ease  in  public 
reading  of  the  Scriptures,  had  occasion  to  lead  the 
meeting  of  inquirers  in  the  mission,  girls  from 
twelve  to  seventeen  years  of  age.  She  thought  care- 
fully about  the  central  text  for  the  meeting,  and 
finally  decided  to  speak  on  the  forty-fifth  Psalm — 
"The  King's  daughter  is  all  glorious  within."  The 
Psalm  was  exceedingly  difficult  to  read  in  Chinese, 


148    FRANCES    BRIDGES    ATKINSON 

but  she  went  over  it  again  and  again  with  the  Chi- 
nese master,  in  order  to  use  it  effectively  at  the  meet- 
ing.   Of  this  occasion  she  wrote : 

"I  wanted  to  give  my  girls  an  idea  of  what  the  Father's 
ideal  for  a  woman's  life  could  be.  The  girls  listened  most 
intently  as  I  told  them  as  I  best  could  of  the  King's  daugh- 
ter, her  clothing  of  wrought  gold,  her  very  garments  fra- 
grant, the  King  desiring  her  beauty  of  mind  and  of  soul  as 
well,  and  to  make  it  real  to  them  I  told  them  of  one  whom 
I  had  known,  God's  own  queenly  woman— dear  Frances 
Bridges.  The  native  teacher  followed  my  Chinese  words, 
imperfect  as  I  knew  they  were,  but  inspired  by  my  thought 
or  by  God's  thought,  and  even  then — though  I  did  not 
know  it — the  King  had  called  His  daughter  into  His  royal 
presence.    The  beauty  of  holiness  was  completed." 

And  thus  her  life  that  was  forced  to  choose,  in  the 
days  of  the  flesh,  between  a  few  years  of  service  in 
America,  or  a  few  years  on  the  foreign  mission-field 
in  the  Orient,  is  living  and  working  in  spiritual 
presence  in  both  continents  and  through  the  Spirit 
of  God  will  continue  so  to  work. 


